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Blockchain technology is gaining importance due to its ability to transform industries. Though the technology has been initially adopted in cryptocurrencies, it is being increasingly integrated in various other industries. According to World Trade Organization, the blockchain deployment could open up over $1 trillion in trade over the next decade. Industries leveraging the Blockchain technology According to the PWC’s Global Blockchain Survey, the Blockchain technology is majorly dominated by Financial service sector. It is due to the growth of cryptocurrencies as over 44.69 million blockchain wallet users worldwide at the end of December 2019. Moreover, banking sector has shown positive inclination towards adopting blockchain technology in cross border payments & settlements and Trade finance. The technology is very promising for quick international transactions and also eliminates the need for middlemen in financial transactions. The manufacturing sector is the next major leader in leveraging the blockchain technology. The sector is witnessing simplification of manufacturing process with the adoption of technology. For example, IBM and Maersk are integrating the blockchain technology in supply chain management to track containers in the shipping process. The health care sector has leveraging this technology to streamline its supply chain and medicine verification process. It also helps health care institutions for better data collaborations and increases the probability of accuracy in diagnosis. For instance, Gem Health Network is a health care startup which has deployed Blockchain to serve the data driven health care sector. It is also important to note that the major governments across the world are exploring the benefits of blockchain technology. The technology is being incorporated to prevent the risk of frauds, reducing paper work and improving accountability. Moreover, in Switzerland, the municipal government in Zug has accepted Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as a means of payment for administrative costs. Various other Governments are also slowly considering the potential of legalizing the cryptocurrencies. Source: PWC Global Blockchain Survey How Blockchain is impacting the Global Economy? With data of users being used and analyzed to provide target advertisements to individuals, digital information has become crucial. The blockchain technology provides transparency and accountability by providing decentralized database. It allows keeping records open in a distributed ledger or a database where the ledgers are not linked to a common processor. Blockchain technology allows users to fully control their personal details that they would like to share in public. Moreover, it does not allow the data to be duplicated and it registers when the data or value is transferred from one to another and thereby creating a transparent history of record. Though decentralization in finance sector is intimidating to governments but with appropriate levels of security and removing intermediaries is proven to be beneficial. For instance, finance service giants like JP Morgan is incorporating the blockchain technology to facilitate transactions between institutions with introduction of JPCoin. Changing business landscape The blockchain technology is revolutionizing the industries by altering the landscape of business. Tokenization’s such as representing a real or virtual asset on a blockchain, Initial coin offerings in place of shares are major indicators that the blockchain technology is changing the business landscape. For instance, Telegram, a messaging app raised $1.7 billion through Initial coin offering. The initial coin offerings are increasingly becoming the alternative to classic debt/ capital funding provided by private equities, banks and venture capitals. In 2019, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and World Bank announced to build a new blockchain operated deb instrument called Bond-i and thereby enabling secondary market trading of the bond on the blockchain. Enterprise software platforms such as Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce are all integrating blockchain technology to streamline core business processes, improve data integrity and facilitate data sharing. Rise of virtual currencies Blockchain technology has led to emergence of numerous cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin. The market caps of all the cryptocurrencies is around $237.1 billion. Cryptocurrency holders are majorly using it due to the absence of financial intermediaries and anonymity i.e., the buying and selling goods and services with cryptocurrencies does not require disclosure of personal identities. For instance, there are around 25 million Bitcoin users globally and most of them are using it for investment purpose. Though there are adequate government backed currencies functioning globally, the rise of cryptocurrencies is seen as a threat to fiat currencies. Several central banks are cautious given the market’s extreme volatility. But there is a shift in trend supporting cryptocurrencies by government. Government of China is willing to embrace the cryptocurrency and Central bank in United Kingdom has called it has part of revolution in finance. Most notable government favoring cryptocurrency is Venezuela, which launched its own cryptocurrency called Petro. Emergence of new industries and territory leaders Blockchain technology has led to rise of initial coin offering, crypto trading, digital wallets, alternative currencies which are relatively new in this millennium. According to the World Economic Forum, at least 10% of the global GDP is being stored on blockchain platforms by 2025. Early adopters of the blockchain technology is currently the dominating the global landscape. Countries like US, China are dominating the Blockchain industry globally. Source: PWC Survey Reducing operational costs, Process streamlining and quick secured international transactions The blockchain technologies digitize, secure and accelerate the business processes and supply chains across the global market. In International trade, generally a transaction can take around 120 days to complete. The technology can help to move from paper based business to digitally verifiably process and thereby facilitating quick international transactions in real time. The technology includes micro payment mechanism which was previously thought impractical and thereby increasing the security level of transactions. It also helps to reduce fraud and facilitates more rapid business operations. Moreover, the blockchain technology has the potential to solve major problems such as compliance problems, lack of trust. The historical record and transparency provided by the technology can help to overcome these issues. Blockchain industry has the potential to disrupt various industries but has also proved to be a value creator in the global economy by enabling to transfer value to the clients or consumers directly. The technology gives users the opportunity to manage and self-regulate the platform themselves and thereby creating an efficient and independent platform. Major challenge remains in this technology is how to scale blockchain based systems in a decentralized environment. The industry also requires essential standards and frameworks to safeguard the investments made in blockchain innovations and applications. Disclaimer: The author of this text, Robin Trehan, has an undergraduate degree in Economics, Masters in international business and finance, and MBA in electronic business. Trehan is Senior VP at Deltec International www.deltecbank.com. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this text are solely the views of the author, and not necessarily reflecting the views of Deltec International Group, its subsidiaries, and/or employees. Thank you for your interest in the Deltec Initiatives Foundation. You can contact us using the form below. Before sending a message to us, kindly note that we do not accept requests for funding. Thank you for your understanding.

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Operators, service companies, EPCs, and industry stakeholders need to increase their level of awareness and understanding of blockchain. As shown in ongoing pilots, blockchain is being applied to commodity transport, JV Management and Seismic Data Management, with many more applications being investigated. The conference will highlight opportunities to create industry solution frameworks and guidelines, leveraging blockchain technology to reduce costs, improve timelines and eliminate disputes in any given process. A key focus of the 2022 conference will be blockchain as an enabler for carbon tracking and mitigation – the generational driver for oil and gas companies today. The Oil & Gas industry continues to operate in challenging times with compressed margins, reduced resources, and funding and an ever pressing need to find, extract, produce, and refine hydrocarbons more cost effectively. Blockchain is part of the solution. For more information about this event, or to register, please visit: blockchain-oilandgas.energyconferencenetwork.com

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Bitcoin’s Taproot Has Been Successfully Activated The long-anticipated Taproot soft fork has been initiated, to make Bitcoin more anonymous, safe, and efficient. On Sunday, November 14, 2021, at 5:15 UTC, the Bitcoin network set a record when its most massive upgrade, Taproot, launched at block 709,632. Taproot’s Upgrade is Here! The adoption is a new phase for Bitcoin, as Taproot is the first critical network improvement since August 2017, following the Lightning Network and Segregated Witness (SegWit) upgrades. Although SegWit and the Lightning Network are aimed at speeding up and lowering the cost of transactions, Taproot offers much more than increased scaling and fee reduction. It attempts to improve the network’s safety and privacy. Taproot incorporates Schnorr Signatures to alleviate several network obligations while improving accessibility, performance, and safety. It functions as a form of master key, condensing a collection of signatures into a single one. This significantly simplifies, speeds up, and lowers the cost of performing multi-signature multi-input transactions (UTXI). It enhances the efficiency of smart contracts. Taproot intends to improve Bitcoin’s scripting language via the Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree concept (MAST). This enables the network to support smart contracts, resulting in increased utilization. As reported by Taproot.watch, a devoted site for upgrading hosted by Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg, “it (MAST) can assist in making smart contracts more effective and secure by releasing only the relevant elements of the contract when spending.” According to Sjöberg, “Taproot is a 100 years soft fork” that “will result in a more fungible and durable blockchain in the long term.” Bitcoin and Taproot: What to Expect With Taproot fully operational on the system, it will be exciting to see how far Bitcoin goes in the future. Almost 90% of miners have previously expressed an interest in upgrading, which explains how Taproot was able to “lock-in” in June and why there was a five-month wait before activation began. However, the activation does not mean that all work is complete. Users will be unable to transmit or receive the new form of the transaction unless their Bitcoin wallet accepts it. To enable such transactions, wallet developers will have to implement new code in their wallets. According to history, it could take time for wallets to get on the train. For example, it took Bitcoin’s most recent major update, SegWit, around two years to achieve 50% adoption. Taproot’s complex use cases (such as private Lightning Network transactions that don’t look distinct from traditional transactions) are still up to the developers to create and execute independently. An essential factor is that Taproot will open the door to fresh ideas and approaches. As developers continue to innovate, develop, and expand, they will get a broader set of tools. There are already a few of these projects in progress, and more than a few are still unimagined. This era is a great time to invest in Bitcoin, and so there is an increasing demand for a safe place to deposit digital assets. With HaggleX, you have complete freedom to manage your Bitcoin savings. With the CryptoSave feature, you can save in bits with the flexible plan or save for the long term with the fixed savings plan and earn up to 21% APY annually. HaggleX is the ideal place to store your Bitcoins because of its use of the most secure and up-to-date encryption technology available. In a matter of seconds, you may get the HaggleX app from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hagglex.hagglex

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Blockchain Applied: Practical Technology and Use Cases of Enterprise Blockchain for the Real World Ashurst, Stephen, Tempesta, Stefano Blockchain is the popular name given to the exciting, evolving world of distributed ledger technology (DLT). Blockchains offer equitable and secure access to data, as well as transparency and immutability. Organisations can decide to use blockchain to upgrade whatever ledgers they are currently deploying (for example, relational databases, spreadsheets and cumbersome operating models) for their data and technology stack in terms of books and records, transactions, storage, production services and in many other areas. This book describes the applied use of blockchain technology in the enterprise world. Written by two expert practitioners in the field, the book is in two main parts: (1) an introduction to the history of, and a critical context explainer about, the emergence of blockchain written in natural language and providing a tour of the features, functionality and challenges of blockchain and DLT; and (2) a series of six applied organisational use cases in (i) trade finance, (ii) healthcare, (iii) retail savings & investments, (iv) real estate, (v) central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and (vi) fund management that offer the reader a straightforward, easy-to-read comparison between 'old world' technology (such as platforms, people and processes) versus what blockchain ledgers offer to enterprises and organisations in terms of improved efficiency, performance, security and access to business data. Blockchain is sometimes tainted by association to Bitcoin, Onecoin and others. But as cryptocurrencies and stock markets continue to rise and fall with volatility and the world economy emerges changed by coronavirus, working from home and the threat of inflation, many enterprises, organisations and governments are looking again at the powerful features of blockchain and wondering how DLT may help them adapt. This book is an ideal introduction to the practical and applied nature of blockchain and DLT solutions for business executives, business students, managers, C-suite senior leaders, software architects and policy makers and sets out, clearly and professionally, the benefits and challenges of the actual business applications of blockchain. Stefano Tempesta works at Microsoft in the Azure Confidential Computing product group to make the Cloud a more secure place for your data and apps. Additionally, as advisor to the Department of Industry, Australia, on the National Blockchain Roadmap, his current focus is on helping people gain and own their digital identity. Stefano is also a technology advisor to Carbon Asset Solutions, a climate action and sustainability network with a mission to slow carbon dioxide emissions and remove excess atmospheric CO2 by using regenerative agriculture technologies. By day, Stephen Ashurst is an independent software writer and wealth tech consultant. By night, a fintech entrepreneur. Stephen did manage to get an undergraduate degree in PPE, but failed Bar School miserably. Seeing the light, he quit law and turned his attentions to the IT industry - a good move, for all concerned. A resident of London, Stephen travels constantly for pleasure and work. But home is where the heart is. And so are family, friends, dogs and 3,000 books. Sadly, so is his kitchen, the site of varyingly successful cooking experiments.

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More than a pending testnet – The network Ethereum (ETH) is about to experience a size update by changing the consensus system. Thus, it will make a transition from proof of work to proof of stake. This will be done through a process called “The Merge”. While waiting for its publication on the mainnet, the transition to proof of stake is being actively tested on the various testnets. After Ropsten, it’s the Sepolia testnet which has just passed the proof of stake. The Merge successfully deployed on Sepolia sepolia is one of the Ethereum network testnets. As its nature suggests, this allows updates to be tested before they are released to the mainnet. Since the middle of June, the Sepolia testnet has been preparing for the transition to proof of stake. Indeed, on June 20, the developers deployed a exclusive beacon chain version to the Sepolia network. This was the first step before the deployment of The Merge, the process which aims to merge the 2 layers of Ethereum. On the one hand, there is the consensus layer in proof of stake, namely the beacon chain. On the other, there is the Ethereum application layer as we know it. Finally, on Wednesday July 6, around 4 p.m. (French time), The Merge was deployed on Sepolia. This deployment made it possible to pass the testnet in proof of stake. Obviously, this transition is not trivial. Indeed, the knots of the 2 networks to merge, those of the consensus layer and those of the execution layer, must be perfectly synchronized. Once The Merge is deployed, customers ofexecution layer will aggregate the transactions and communicate them to the consensus layer clients for verification and finalization. >> Your first bitcoins in a few minutes? Sign up on Binance (affiliate link) << Minor issues during deployment The deployment of fusion on Sepolia did not go without a few hiccups. Indeed, just after the transition, 20 to 30% of knots from the beacon chain met offline. Fortunately, this problem had nothing to do with a bug. In fact, it was the deployment of a bad configuration for Lighthouse nodes. The configuration of these nodes was then correctedmaking it possible to solve the problem and find a attendance above 90% network nodes. The proof of stake at your fingertips from Ethereum This success marks one more step before deployment on the mainnet. Indeed, after Ropsten and Sepolia, all that remains is to deploy The Merge on the Goerli testnet before tackling the mainnet. Althoughno official date has not been revealed as to the deployment on the mainnet, the updated version of the official Ethereum site predicts the transition to proof of stake for the third or fourth trimester of the year. In the meantime, the decline in ETH price coupled with a drop in activity has led to a drastic drop in fees on Ethereum. Indeed, transaction fees have returned to a level not seen since 2020. Whether you are a fan of DeFi, Bitcoin or one of the cryptocurrencies that populate the market, it is essential that you have an account on Binance, the major player in the trading ecosystem (affiliate link)

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Christie’s auction house took another step last week to secure its position at the forefront of the intersection between art and technology. They launched an in-house investment fund, ‘Christie’s Ventures’, which aims to offer financial support and guidance to startups in the developing field of technology and fintech. Over the past few years, Christie’s has firmly established itself as one of the most prominent art institutions in the area of art and technology. In 2018, the auction house’s inaugural conference Art+Tech Summit was held, and each year since the summit has explored new themes in the art and technology world. In its first year, the conference theme was Exploring Blockchain, and since then they have addressed topics such as the AI (Artificial Intelligence) Revolution, Mixed Reality, and NFTs and Beyond. They were also the first auction house to accept cryptocurrency and to sell an individual NFT when they sold Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5,000 Days in March 2021 for $69.3m with fees. According to Devang Thakkar, Global Head of Christie’s Ventures, who spoke at the company’s Art+Tech Summit last week, the new venture capital fund will focus on three emerging areas in the art-technology world: “We have three pillars we’re looking at, one of which is Web3, one of the other pillars is investing in better ways of viewing art, that is, technology that improves how you consume art. The third pillar is around the financial innovation in the art market, technology that makes it easier to actually acquire art objects.” Christie’s Ventures has already invested in Canadian company LayerZero Labs, a company which “enables the realization of cross-chain applications” – essentially allowing for people to move digital assets across different blockchains. Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder of LayerZero Labs, said in a statement: “we look forward to working with the [Christie’s] team to find new and innovative ways to create the most accessible, frictionless experience with assets indexed over multiple blockchains”. On the auction house’s motivation for embarking on this new project, Thakkar explained, “we’ve been at the forefront of technology for a long time, for example we’ve had live auctions where you can bid from your phone. Then our thinking shifted over the pandemic. We decided, we can’t just take what someone builds and plug it in, if we want something that is very customized, we should actually take an investment position and guide the founders to make something that is the right thing for the art market.”

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Vitalik Buterin Among Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2021 Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People List for 2021 includes several names that have played an important role in popularizing blockchain technology. One of them is Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Time Magazine named Vitalik Buterin an innovator and singled out his potential for empowering others with the help of smart contracts, one of Ethereum’s main technological features. Ethereum is the technology behind the NFTs (non-fungible tokens) that are presently changing the ways in which creatives can monetize their work. Some NFTs have been used to produce digital artwork, GIFs, and memes and earned their owners millions of dollars. Some of NFTs markets have gone beyond the $1bln marks in sales. Other projects that have been in development for several years are making a significant impact on developing economies of the Philippines and Venezuela, among others. Influencers and long-term developers credit Vitalik Buterin with the opportunities Ethereum has given to various Internet projects. There are startups that use this blockchain technology to reinvent fantasy sports, while others adjust Ethereum to their purely creative projects. Ethereum by Vitalik Buterin is said to revolutionize the ways in which people can use the Internet, and this alone is a reason to have him listed in Time magazine. Together with Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin the following blockchain technology enthusiasts have been listed by Time magazine. Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, has made a concerted effort to include Bitcoin as legal tender. And Elon Musk, one of the leading innovators and financiers, has recently exchanged some of his company’s assets to Bitcoin. The future of blockchain technology looks bright – at least in the media. Don’t miss your chance to invest in ETH before it reaches 10,000$. Take a look at ECOS portfolios!

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Credits is a public, fast, and completely decentralized blockchain platform with Turing-complete smart contracts. The beta version released in March 2018, with the mainnet platform released in June 2018, Credits Blockchain platform is an innovative technological platform for the development and execution of blockchain technology and smart contracts based decentralized applications. During the first stage of the Credits Blockchain Platform load test, its transaction speed reached 1.3 million transactions per second. A Node refers to as a client-side application installed on the user equipment. The Node performs the storage and processing of transactions, the deployment, and confirmation of the smart contract conditions, and provides data upon the request. It is a blockchain explorer that contains current and previous transactions, as well as smart contracts on the network. Explore your transactions history Credits Monitor is a multifunctional web-based tool used to monitor the transaction history of all network members, circulation of nodes globally and gathering of general statistics. Credits Wallet enables you to transfer currency to other network members (CS internal currency or tokens) without requiring to install the Network Node and use existing smart contracts available in the network registry. Written in Java, this electronic wallet is accessible using public and private keys. Developments undergoing the patenting: Credits Blockchain uses a completely unique consensus and decision method based on data processing and multiple validations with strong implementation solution. It offers an innovative high-speed data Transmission Protocol within a decentralized network. That is capable of executing transactions from 0.1 sec per transaction. Based on high-security cryptography algorithms, it gives a different block and transaction validation and confirmation solution. The blockchain platform is open source with self-sufficient smart contracts. It aims to create services for blockchain systems using self-automatic smart contracts with a public data registry. Speed: Transaction processing speed around 0.1 seconds Fees: Approx. 0.001 USD Volume: 1.3 Million transactions per sec Develop decentralized applications and services using Credits blockchain solutions. Storing data on the blockchain Credits Blockchain Platform features Financial assets issuing

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From 2023 most subjects will be taught on campus only with flexible options limited to a select number of postgraduate programs and individual subjects. To learn more, visit COVID-19 course and subject delivery. |Fees||Look up fees| Blockchain is one of the most important technologies to impact law and business in recent years, and presents many challenges and opportunities for lawyers. Blockchain is revolutionising finance, eliminating the need for "trusted” human intermediaries and using computer code to facilitate automated transactions. This subject is designed to introduce students to the emerging social, economic and legal issues associated with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. It will initially consider the extent to which we should allow regulation and government intervention to influence the development and adoption of blockchain technologies, including cryptocurrencies, balancing the maintenance of social and legal norms against the need to let a nascent technology innovate and disrupt. The subject will then analyse how to maintain rule of law through appropriate legal and regulatory levers. The subject is grounded in the law, but also seeks to be broad and interdisciplinary. Principal topics will include: - Introduction to cryptocurrencies and blockchains - Introduction to smart contracts and governance design - Regulation of finance and securities markets in the age of blockchain - Initial coin offerings and their regulatory framework - Digital identity and privacy - Intersection of blockchain technologies with existing legal frameworks - Legal services use-cases for blockchain technologies Intended learning outcomes A student who has successfully completed this subject will: - Have an advanced and integrated understanding of the legal questions that surround blockchain technologies and the complex web of history, culture, technology, law and regulation into which blockchain has been placed; - Have an advanced understanding of the legal implications of the use of blockchain technologies in various contexts and how to develop blockchain-based legal solutions; - Have the cognitive and technical skills to become active participants in blockchain technologies by introducing the salient features of decentralised, distributive computing platforms; - Have the communication skills to clearly articulate and convey complex information regarding blockchain technologies. On completion of the subject students should have developed the following skills: - Mastery of the principal areas of law as they relate to blockchain technology; - expert, specialised cognitive and technical skills for critical and independent thought and reflection in the context of blockchain technology and its use cases (including crypto currencies); - mastery of technical research skills relevant to blockchain regulation; - expert, specialised cognitive, creative and technical skills to solve problems, including through the critical evaluation of research relevant to the area of blockchain technologies; and - the ability to expertly communicate specialised and complex information, ideas, concepts and theories relevant to blockchain technologies. Last updated: 29 July 2022

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Build your home, become part of your world. Strongholds is a system for helping the players build a home for the SagaBorn Roleplaying System. Wizard’s towers, rogue’s hideouts, and warrior’s fortresses allow the adventurers to make the land their own. Simple rules to add depth to your tabletop game, Strongholds is a system streamlined enough to fit in any game. What is a stronghold? A stronghold is a place that serves as a base and home to the adventurers and their allies. It is a place of healing, crafting, and power within the lands. The stronghold is crafted by the adventurers with the gold found on their adventures. It gives bonuses, but may also attract attention from others.

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They have a lot of potential applications in various fields: registries, finance, healthcare, supply chains, gaming. However, the problem is that blockchain technology still suffers from very serious limitations; the worst of them is the speed of transactions. Even Ethereum, which is the most popular blockchain platform, still doesn’t have any mainstream services or applications. All popular applications such as Cryptokitties clogged the network so much that the regular transaction was taking one day to be completed. At the same time, all networks that can achieve higher throughput are more centralized - such as EOS, Tron, NEO, all of them have only 20-100 nodes. That’s why large businesses can’t build anything on these platforms - they simply don’t trust them. Another problem is that none of these platforms uses the rich arsenal of tools for Ethereum developers, trying to invent their own tools, and the large community of Ethereum developers doesn’t want to touch these platforms, preferring to wait until Ethereum gets upgraded. That’s where layer 2 solutions can shine. What is layer 2 for a blockchain? That’s another chain connected to the main one, that can be used to transfer assets from Layer 1. The layer 2 scaling solution for Bitcoin is called Lightning Network. The solution for Ethereum is called Plasma. The concepts for both are developed by Joseph Poon. There are two types of layer 2 blockchains - side chains and child chains and currently, there are two working implementations of Plasma, OMG Network (OMG) and Polygon (previously Matic). The first one is the child chain Plasma implementation, and it roots its security in the Ethereum parent chain. Polygon, on the other hand, is a child chain with its rules, connected to Ethereum. The only true Plasma according to the initial design is OMG, but a side chain implementation can also be useful for scaling. How do they work? OMG Network’s blockchain is anchored to Ethereum. Assets get sent to a smart contract on Layer 1 and then can be transferred on Layer 2. When necessary, the network can save the current state and balances on Ethereum. The security of the network is controlled by decentralized Watchers, special smart contracts that supervise the network. Currently, all blocks are generated by a single producer node, called the Operator, but in the future, it will be possible to switch to a decentralized scheme of the PoS consensus. The most important feature is the total security of funds, meaning that even if some operators go malicious and try to attack the chain, all users will still be able to exit safely to the main chain retrieving all their funds. Polygon on the other hand works as a PoS Plasma side-chain hosted on the Tendermint blockchain. Currently, its maximum throughput is 10,000 tx/s. It can also be scaled in the future by launching additional side chains. It has its own security scheme which doesn’t rely completely on Ethereum security. Polygon owners stake their tokens in the root contract of the Ethereum chain to be able to verify transactions on the 2nd layer, on the Tendermint side chain, the main Polygon 2nd layer. Stakers also choose Block Producers who have to stake a significant amount of MATIC tokens to be nominated. There is a very low number of Block Producers to achieve faster block generation times. Any user can deposit ERC-20 or ERC-721 in the Polygon contract on the Ethereum chain. When the transaction gets completed, the same amount of tokens appears on the Polygon chain and then can be sent to any address with a very small fee and faster confirmations (1 second or less). When a user wants to exit the Polygon chain, they can withdraw the remaining tokens from the Root contract. The current state of the Polygon chain gets saved on the Ethereum chain from time to time, every several Polygon blocks. If somebody finds a fraudulent transaction from the bad actor on the Polygon layer, they can challenge the transaction, and if they’re right, the fraudulent node gets slashed and all its tokens go to the reporter. That’s a small additional security measure. Overall, both Plasma implementations are very good and can be used in many areas, such as DeFi, lending platforms, exchange platforms, healthcare, and even games, as they allow to transfer ERC-721 non-fungible tokens such as CryptoKitties. Layer 2 solutions are probably going to be widely used in the future to scale blockchains.

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- Last week, a Florida federal jury said it couldn’t reach a conclusion in Kleiman v. Wright. - This week it gave something of a split decision. Craig Wright, who claims he is inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, is off the hook for a multibillion-dollar payment to the estate of computer scientist Dave Kleiman, which argued that the men created Bitcoin together. But Wright will still have to pay $100 million to the company he and Kleiman founded after a federal jury in Florida found the nChain chief scientist liable for conversion, defined as when “one converts another’s property to his/her own use,” and which Law.com describes as “a fancy way of staying ‘steals.'” In 2018, the estate of Dave Kleiman brought a lawsuit against Craig Wright, an Australian IT professional, arguing that Wright had breached a business partnership between the two men that involved inventing the Bitcoin blockchain. The estate said that the two men, acting together as Satoshi, mined about 1 million Bitcoin during the early years of the network but that Wright reappropriated the mined BTC for himself after Kleiman’s death in 2013 . The estate wanted around $170 billion in damages—far beyond the $25 billion or so those Bitcoins are worth because it included intellectual property tied to the network as well as punitive damages. That won’t be happening. The jury, which signalled last week that it was having trouble agreeing on a verdict, ultimately concluded that Wright wasn’t responsible for any of the counts except conversion. According to legal news site Law360, Wright said he was…

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Eden is a blockchain-based programmable economy platform that provides high-performance processing speeds which address the aforementioned technical issues. Eden has the capacity to develop a variety of automated services using smart contracts, enabling interoperability with external systems. The core technologies implementing programmable economy smart contracts, have a greater technological and economic value than non-deterministic smart contracts that require off-chain integration rather than deterministic smart contracts that are operated only on-chain. Conventional blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are unsafe because they are exposed to hacker attacks. This is due to the lack of guaranteed trust in interacting with external systems that are normally required for non-deterministic smart contracts. Eden uses the E-Bridge layer to retrieve data from multiple data sources when a non-deterministic smart contract is interfaced with an external system. Eden encrypts this data and incorporates the Median Voter Theorem (MVT) to secure trust and to defend against attacks from hackers. Performance is a vital technical issue that is essential to the implementation of smart contracts. Eden combines namespaces with Merkle Tree, isolates transactions based on its particular namespace, and secures performance and scalability by constructing an execution system capable of parallel processing by namespace. This enables the ability to carry out a vast number of transactions in parallel. Eden supports Solidity, the most popular smart contract language at this time, as well as Dyerium’s EVM since smart contracts are heavily used for sensitive services such as payment and settlement. Stable and reliable smart contract programming languages are more important than the creation of an unnecessary new type of programming language. The development of a new type of language requires a long time to be validated through constant testing and can be exposed to serious security vulnerabilities during this validation period. Eden constructs a blockchain using EVM and Solidity, which are verified and continually improved by the community. Since Eden guarantees secured connectivity, one can fully realize a programmable economy by trading various blockchain-based assets on the Internet. Tokenization of any type of asset can publicly prove ownership of the asset and the owner of a particular asset can take part in both P2P transactions and transactions on exchanges. A permissioned blockchain has evolved as an alternative to permissionless blockchain technology, which allows anyone to join a network, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Permissioned blockchain technology must be authorized by a network administrator through an authentication process in order to participate in the network. Newly emerging blockchain technologies such as Kadena, Tendermint, and Chain, adopted permissioned networks, and Hyperledger, a blockchain open source project for the Linux Foundation, also adopted the permissioned blockchain technology. Eden is configured with a permissioned blockchain to run smart contracts quickly and efficiently in a trusted environment. In a permissionless blockchain network such as Ethereum, a smart contract runs on all nodes. This leads to significant problems surrounding performance and efficiency. All smart contracts are stored in an EVM within a blockchain network and are executed according to certain conditions. If a million, or a hundred million, smart contracts exist in an Ethereum blockchain, serious performance problems may occur. Miners within the network may prioritize running smart contracts from which they can gain higher profits, that is, those with higher gas, so all smart contracts may not be executed. Although individually running smart contracts on all full nodes are based on the philosophy of the permissionless blockchain technology, individually running and validating the smart contracts on all of the nodes at all times is not considered efficient. Eden is a permissioned blockchain that builds and runs a trustworthy environment for smart contract execution. This is achieved with the use of a platform that not only ensures safety but also increases efficiency through the use of nodes within namespaces which helps guarantee 100 percent processing of all transactions. The design principle is important especially when it comes to platform software because the principle resolves conflict among many software modules as well as giving guideline to keep architectural consistency. The technical problems EdenChain wants to deal with consists of three items. To provide a scalable blockchain platform where required performance will be delivered with ease To guarantee a non-stop blockchain platform to its users To accelerate blockchain as a business service So any design principle must meet those requirements: Scalability, High-Availability and Accessibility. All are adopted in the EdenChain architecture. As we know, scalability means increasing or decreasing processing power to handle all received tasks. Scalability is the top priority demanded by most of blockchain services since existing blockchain platforms are not suitable to process real world workloads. There are basically two options to smooth scalability: scale up and scale out. EdenChain achieves scalability through scale out. The basic idea for the scale out is doing parallel processing in a distributed manner. Handling a massive workload simultaneously requires multiple computing resources which can digest the given workload in a distributed environment. So the scalability design principle forces one to have a design which allows for a workload distribution by algorithm, data structure and so on. Accessibility takes an important position when it comes to a blockchain service implementation. What if the technology which solves blockchain’s major tech problems was not easy to learn, and it was hard to find qualified developers? The blockchain platform should be easy to use and learn, it should not be hard to find developers for quick development and the architecture should not sacrifice flexibility and functionality. In EdenChain, accessibility is the second important design principle needed to fulfill its vision, namely that of a permissioned blockchain platform for enterprises. Since Eden is a permissioned blockchain, service availability must be considered. Given that an Eden server is operated by a small number of authorized agencies or companies, the server operation can be terminated when many hackers attack the servers or when there is a natural disaster such as an earthquake. Eden must be able to guarantee high availability in order to ensure that the services for users and businesses alike can continue to operate at all times regardless of any external threat. Eden utilizes cloud services to ensure a high degree of availability and operates an Eden system with a multi-datacenter pattern using a global DNS and a load balancer. The same system that provides the Eden service is configured and operated in each service zone across major continents such as Asia, North America, and Europe, and it can provide a stable service despite attacks from hackers and or the occurrence of natural disasters. A network between service zones deployed on each of the continents is composed of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Cloud services provide connectivity between data centers across continents with high-speed dedicated lines, enabling fast networking and a data center-to-data center configuration. An example of a multi-datacenter pattern is the pattern provided by the cloud service provider Amazon. It is used by a number of Internet companies such as the Apache Foundation, Netflix, CloudFoundry, and Attlasian, and is also recommended by Microsoft Azure. The above image shows a configuration of an operating environment of Eden to which a multi data center pattern and a VPN are applied. The operating environment receives a data request from outside a global DNS, plays the role of being connected to an appropriate service zone, and secures availability by operating multiple global DNS servers. Endpoints of all services are designed and operated so as to be the global DNS. A load balancer delivers requests forwarded from the global DNS to Eden servers in order to be processed. The load balancer not only requests routing but also collects status information from each of the servers. This helps perform a more intelligent service operation than a round-robin service operation, which in turn allows the system to pinpoint servers that encounter a problem and to monitor the workload on each server, thereby aiding in capacity planning. Servers running Eden are protected by an operational firewall. The operational firewall is a way to organize the Eden servers into functional groups and to apply a firewall policy to each of the organized functional groups. The operational firewall can functionally apply a well-abstracted security policy to a server so that a security policy can be flexibly designed, applied to each of the groups, and managed internally. This allows the Eden architecture to minimize any form of potential mistake in setting work by users. If a VPN in full mesh topology is built between service zones, performance and management problems will arise because each VPN configuration becomes more complicated as the range of the service zone increases. The Eden operating system can configure a VPN in a star topology so that a VPN router in a service zone can be connected with a VPN gateway without connecting to all of the service zones and enable VPN networking with the other service zones. The consensus algorithm plays an important role in blockchain technology. There are two approaches. The first is a “Nakamoto Consensus,” which is a way to conduct a leader selection through a lottery process. When selected as a leader, one has the right to authenticate a previous block and to create a new block. In case of Bitcoin, a node that solves a hash puzzle first is selected as the leader. The second method uses “BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance).” This method does not select a leader and a final agreement is reached through several stages of voting. Eden uses Proof-of-Elapsed-Time (PoET) as a consensus algorithm. PoET is a “Nakamoto Consensus” method, which uses a CPU command to select a leader randomly without using enormous levels of energy to solve a hash problem like Bitcoin currently does. PoET provides an opportunity to become a leader with block generation authority for all nodes participating in a blockchain network with a probability similar to of other leader selection algorithms (Foundation, 2017). PoET is implemented in an SGX enclave so as to defend against hacker attacks and to allow the leader selection process to proceed safely. At each node, PoET uses a CPU command in the SGX enclave to obtain a wait time that follows an exponential distribution as a random number and selects the node that has the smallest wait time as the leader. PoET is designed to follow the Poisson distribution, which is a form of discrete probability distribution that follows the exponential distribution shown below and expresses how many times a certain number of events occur within a unit time if the event is independent. Eden uses a Radix Merkle Tree to store a current state of the blockchain. Validator nodes that check conformity of blocks all contain a Radix Merkle Tree. A Radix Merkle Tree displays some data with optimal space. If there is only one child node, it unites the nodes into one, so it can use memory more effectively. In a leaf node of the Radix Merkle Tree, a node address is included, and thus it is possible to identify a sibling or a parent of the node by the node address value. A validator node examines a node address included in a transaction within a block and a batch to verify the transaction. Node Address = Namespace + Node Path A namespace is a form of identification value for ascertaining the type of transaction and all transactions in Eden must contain namespace information. Validator nodes can use the namespace information to group transactions into blocks of related transactions. For example, for a transaction that contains simple transactional information, the namespace “EDN” is used, and for smart contract XYZ, a namespace “XYZ” is used. The validator node can distinguish XYZ-related transactions from EDN-related transactions by simply checking a namespace contained in the transaction. Since EDN and XYZ are different types of transactions there is no data consistency problem and both transactions can be executed in parallel. As a result, it is no longer necessary to execute one transaction at a time due to data consistency issues as is the case for many existing solutions in the blockchain space. REST API is core part of EdenChain and enables developers to build blockchain business application quickly and easily. REST API is the tool to realize the second design principle, accessibility. REST API is well known in software and furthermore it is the default standard for many kinds of integration. EdenChain enables developers to create blockchain business application solely by using REST API. A developer need not have a deep knowledge in blockchain nor EdenChain as long as the developer knows how to use REST API. EdenChain aims to provide an intuitive REST API to developers, so in less than half a day, a developer could begin implementation just by reading API documents and sample codes.

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- This is not financial advice this is an interview with NeuroChain - All answers have been provided by NeuroChain - Investitin.com staff are not financial advisors. - This is not a buy, sell or hold recommendation of any assets mentioned in this interview. - Do your own research before you invest in anything. - This article/interview has been published for free. - Your capital as at extreme risk and you can lose it all when investing in ICOs and cryptos. - Please discuss this with your local financial advisor before you invest. - Full Disclaimer Interview with Bruno Delahaye CMO- Founding Partner of NeuroChain What is NeuroChain? The project is new distributed ecosystem for Machine Learning and AI, based on new consensus Algorithm; It’s an augmented Blockchain technology. It provides a decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) mechanism for any real life and business purpose. The validation mechanism is based on Bots (robots animated by AI algorithms) installed on a decentralized network. They are elected on a scientific protocol called Proof of Involvement and Integrity (PII) so as to validate transactions on NeuroChain network. Who is the team behind NeuroChain? The project is a complex initiative composed of scientists, technicians, business and lawyers experts. Fundamentally, the kernel is composed of two people: - Billal CHOULI: a Ph.D. in Nuclear Fusion physics who strive at applying his knowledge on uncharted fields. Billal is the author of the Blockchains, a reference book on blockchain in France. - Frederic GOUJON: an entrepreneur, expert in IT architecture with strong knowledge how to run a business and an IT project. He is also an expert on blockchain and the co-author of Blockchains. The team is then composed of a well-balanced group of professionals both in skills and characters. Their key characteristics: - Expert in decentralized technologies and Ethereum - Expert in Machine Learning and AI - Experts in Big Data and parallel programming - Expert in IT security - Expert in systems administration - Experts in communication and business partnership - Experts in law What are the key differences between NeuroChain and Ethereum? Ethereum is a blockchain where Turing completeness was introduced (Smart contracts). NeuroChain is a blockchain project where Artificial Intelligence was introduced and play a central role (collective artificial intelligence). In other words, except the ledger, inspired from Bitcoin everything else is different: - A new protocol which greatly improved speed and number of transactions, while reducing dramatically energy requirements (Proof of Involvement and Integrity) - A new set of communication protocols - A real ‘Intelligent’ application systems thanks to automatic learning algorithms (in opposition to simple smart contracts) - An ecosystem of Collective Artificial Intelligence - A better use of infrastructure : all is based on CPU - An ecosystem rather than a flock of standalone programs What is the role of Bots in NeuroChain? Bots have at least two roles: - Validate a transaction if elected - Improve the ecosystem thanks to its specialization in the algorithm that he runs - Allow other Bots to communicate with each other - Learn from each other - Elaborate an ecosystem of Collective Artificial Intelligence Why do bots need to be elected and what is that process to do so? The election process is simple. Periodically: - They start looking at the ledger and compute the Proof of Involvement and Integrity algorithm (to reach the consensus) of each Bot on the network. This is a score that measures the activity in the network, and the power of this activity, also known as entropy and enthalpy. - The top scored Bots are elected among an arbitrary number of 577 Bots (which evolve according to the network). - They receive the transaction of the community of other Bots. - The elected Bots create Blocks and validate them. - The elected Bot receives a given amount of NCCs, to compensate for the validation work. - The elected Bots send the validated Blocks to the other Bots. - A block received is always controlled: was the Bot who sent the Block was able to validate or not. If so, make a copy of it in your local ledger. Who will operate these Bots and what are the requirements and incentives to do so? Anyone can operate a simple Bot. It must at least be installed and connected to the network. The best performers are more likely to be elected as validators. Hence, the network quality, speed and power of the Bot are all incentivized in exchange of NCC (NeuroChain Clausius) forging. It can be installed on a VM, a container or anything alike. Can the Bot operators alter bot behaviour? Yes, it can. If doing so, their PII score will be altered. If the alteration is positive (e.g., better speed), its PII score will increase, hence the probability to forge NCC. If altering negatively, the probability of being elected shrinks significantly. A bot counterfeiting a program is highly unlikely, thanks to the Proof of Workflow. A program was validated as not behaving as a malware. What are the elected bots using NeuroChain tokens for? They can be used, by selling them, as a mean to pay for the operations. It can be used otherwise on other programs or Bots to process a given computation. And they use them to operate the Intelligent applications. Can tokens be issued on NeuroChain? No. They are forged by the Bots. The first NCC (tokens) are created by the genesis block however. What are some practical use cases for NeuroChain? Some easy to identify use cases are: - Cross companies data exchange, while hiding part of the knowledge (e.g., insurance contract transfer between companies that significantly lower mailing and legal costs, while hiding the people who won the new contract) - Traceability of goods - Validation of information (e. g., the customer is telling the truth) - Anything that required Artificial Intelligence of Machine Learning (e.g., genomic distribution, plane delays, expected market share, future most required product for a given client group, etc.) - Autonomous cars algorithm transfer - Autonomous car processed data transfer - Automatic contract execution (insurance payments) - Property transfer (shares, micro-bonds) - Regulated professions - Data banks What are the key dates on the NeuroChain roadmap? |First concerns and enlightens on blockchain technologies||2010| |First book on Blockchain and angular stones of NeuroChain||2016| |Preparing NeuroChain ICO||June 2017| |Presentation of the concept at Paris Microsoft event||October 2016 and 2017| |ICO Launch||March 2018| |Start of Protocol development||March 2018| |First launch of test net||January 2019| |First launch of main net||March 2019| |First business applications available||March 2019| |Release of the meta language based on C++||September 2019| What are the key dates for the ICO? - Start of Private Sales : Feb 20th 2018 3:00:00 PM UTC - End of Private Sales : March 12th 2018 3:00:00 PM UTC - Start of Public Sales (Discount Sales) : March 19th, 2018, 08:00:00 AM UTC - Start of Public Sales (Attractive Sales) : March 26th, 2018, 08:00:00 AM UTC - Start of Public Sales (Haste Sales) : April 9th, 2018, 08:00:00 AM UTC - End of ICO: April 19th, 2018, 08:00:00 PM UTC How will the ICO funds be distributed? Tokens expected usage and forging schema: A- 70% to Elected Bots B- 15% to Investors C- 10% to Founding Team and Advisors D- 3% to the Foundation E- 2% to the Seed Fund Would you like to add further information? The NeuroChain is a scientific applied project. Anything you can do with artificial intelligence and machine learning can be done through NeuroChain. Granted that most business issues can be tackled with AI and ML, then pretty much everything you can think of can be dealt with NeuroChain. We are looking for entrepreneurs, engineers, believers and new ways to exploit our project. The code is open source. You can fork, but we would prefer a community work than a quick segregation of seed projects. For more information please visit: https://www.neurochaintech.io/

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Enrollment Available since 10th March 2020 About the course: “Blockchain is a time-stamped sequence of unchallengeable data records that are managed by a group of computers and not under the ownership of any single entity. These blocks of data, known as a ‘block’ are bound together through certain cryptographic principles, known as the ‘chain’, completing the ‘Blockchain’ as a technology”. This Professional Certification gives you personal credentials to act as an expert in blockchain. - Chapter 1: Concepts - Chapter 2: Applications - Chapter 3: Personal Project in Blockchain Certification. - 20 credits course to continue your studies trough AKBS - Certificate of Achievement by AKBS - Self-paced course

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There are many things to consider when deciding on a crypto blockchain. You’ll want to consider scalability, transparency, and Proof of burn. Here are some of the most important things to consider. This article will walk you through some of the most important aspects of a crypto blockchain. Read on to find out more! Once you have a solid understanding of how these aspects work, you’ll be ready to make your final decision. Scalability of a Crypto Blockchain Scalability is the ability of a crypto blockchain to handle large volumes of data. If a network is unable to scale properly, it will not be able to handle the increasing volume of transactions. The lack of scalability of a blockchain is a major concern for the decentralized cryptocurrency industry. There are various blockchain scalability solutions available to address this problem. This article will discuss the differences between the two types of scalability. A crypto blockchain’s scalability is a key determinant of its capacity to handle the increased number of transactions. The number of nodes and transactions in a network determines how fast the system can process them. Bitcoin’s blockchain is scalable since new participants can join the network and increase its capacity. Furthermore, the PoW system automatically adjusts its difficulty level to accommodate any number of nodes. As a result, scalability is an essential factor when evaluating a crypto blockchain. The ability of a blockchain to handle a high number of transactions is important when considering mass adoption. For instance, Visa can process 24,000 transactions per second, while Ethereum is limited to seven. To reach mass adoption, cryptocurrencies need to catch up with VISA’s speed. However, while achieving mass adoption is an important goal for cryptocurrencies, it is also one of the most difficult challenges to overcome. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the key concepts behind scalability, including throughput, finality, and confirmation time. In order to increase the capacity of a crypto blockchain, its protocols must be optimized. A single scaling solution is unlikely to provide an optimal solution for Bitcoin’s network. However, a wide variety of coins are addressing this challenge with off-chain solutions. Plasma, for instance, is a popular example of layer 2 scaling solutions. Plasma uses child chains that begin with the parent blockchain and function as independent blockchains. It can also provide similar environments for the processing of certain types of transactions, as well as enhanced security. Transparency of a Crypto Blockchain Blockchains are a great way to make transactions more secure. But they can also be very useful in product supply chains. For example, blockchains can help make the food supply chain more transparent and traceable. It can also help protect personal information. But the issue of privacy still remains a difficult one. For now, we will focus on two main areas of blockchain technology. Both are vital. Let’s explore each one in more detail. Bitcoin has a huge advantage when it comes to transparency. The blockchain acts as a public ledger for all bitcoin transactions. Moreover, this technology can be customized to serve other purposes such as file storage, property ownership, asset trading, and manufacturing process verification. Despite its many advantages, blockchain is still a new technology. Therefore, many people are skeptical about it. However, it is promising, and its benefits are clear. Proof of Work Proof of work (PoW) is an efficient consensus mechanism that fosters a healthy closed economy by encouraging users to maintain the system’s stability and integrity. It works by requiring users to solve complex mathematical problems and uncommon arithmetic complications. PoW is also efficient in preventing DDoS attacks but requires heavy computational power and expensive equipment. Furthermore, it’s not practical for day-to-day tasks. The main reason for this is the difficulty of computing a hash, and the difficulty is intentionally high. This forces participants to invest significant computing power in order to create new blocks. In addition, it reduces the likelihood of double-spending, a devastating attack on the integrity of the entire blockchain. This way, no one can easily copy a single unit. And since the process is difficult to duplicate, it’s a good way to discourage fraudulent activity and protect the integrity of cryptocurrencies. Despite its drawbacks, PoW has a number of advantages for both simple and valuable currencies. It’s a proven method for maintaining a decentralized network. As the value of a cryptocurrency increases, more miners join the network, increasing its power and security. Moreover, the processing power involved in mining is so large that it’s impossible for an individual to interfere with the network. This is why Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies use proof of work as their consensus mechanism. While proof of work is more secure and stable than Proof of Stake, the latter has a few disadvantages. The former penalizes malicious actors and network disruptions. The latter also penalizes miners’ sunk costs – time, energy, and money. In addition, it slashes validators’ staked funds, which act as an economic incentive. If a validator accepts a bad block, the staked funds are slashed. Proof of Burn Proof of burn is a proposed mechanism to earn mining rewards in cryptocurrencies. By mining with proof of burn, you earn lifetime privileges on the crypto blockchain. The more coins you burn, the more likely you are to earn the next block. However, this method can be expensive if you invest too much in it. You may consider investing in a different cryptocurrency instead. It is worth considering, though, that proof of burn is not suitable for all users. Proof of burn is a method that is similar to the proof of stake but involves a more complicated process. In this case, miners spend more computing power than they have. This method is unsustainable, as it wastes resources and does not guarantee recovery of the value of the burned coins. The downside is that it has been widely adopted by the crypto community. To learn more about this method, check out this article. And stay tuned for more articles about Proof of Burn. PoB is a consensus algorithm that allows the periodic burning of crypto coins. This allows for continued mining, as the energy of burned coins is depleted with each fresh block. This method is especially helpful for cryptos with low-energy requirements, as the burning of coins lowers energy consumption and maintains the mining capacity. That is why proof of burn is a promising method to use in cryptocurrencies. But, there are many other benefits to Proof of Burn. Another downside to Proof of Burn is its initial investment requirement. In order to participate in this system, you must buy coins and burn them. This will require a large amount of initial investment and thousands of dollars. Unlike Proof of Work and Proof of Stake, the new method requires very low computing power and can be used to invest in alternative currencies at an early stage. This makes it an attractive option for people looking to start earning some extra money. Security of a Crypto Blockchain A good example of the security of a crypto blockchain is Bitcoin. This accounting ledger is shared among many computers, known as nodes. These nodes compete with each other to add blocks of transactions to the blockchain. In exchange for their efforts, nodes earn bitcoins. Nevertheless, there are also risks associated with this kind of technology. Therefore, you should take care when deciding to use a crypto blockchain. Here are some tips for protecting your information. One of the most important aspects of a crypto blockchain is its decentralization. This decentralization of the network generates consensus between different parties. Hence, blockchain-based SSL certificates are used to ensure the security of transactions and account balances. Because of the decentralization of the network, successful attacks are mathematically impossible. These benefits have prompted many businesses to invest in crypto technology. As more people are embracing crypto, the need for increased security measures is more pressing than ever. Despite the many benefits of blockchain technology, there are significant security risks associated with it. First and foremost, security issues can happen if one user, or a group of users, misuses the network’s private keys. Hackers may exploit a weak point in the network and gain control of more than 50% of the mining power. The second threat is that hackers can access the real-time data routed through Internet service providers. This can be a serious concern for cryptocurrency exchanges. Blockchain technology also comes with a number of other security challenges. One of them is privacy. By decentralizing data, only certain people can access a small amount of information about a patient. Then, when that information is combined, the entire health chart would be shared. This way, a healthcare company cannot access all aspects of a patient’s record. As a result, blockchain technology may be the answer to this problem.

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* By Starcoin Community, inspirations from Starcoin core developer, Hugo. Why is Starcoin valuable? Starcoin, A New Generation of Layered Smart Contract And Distrbuted Financial Network. There are great innovations in Starcoin, such as: - Smart Contract - Distributed Finance - New Generation As you might be aware, the first layer is public blockchain if you have some knowledge about blockchain technology. From a technical standpoint, there are many delicate designs in Starcoin, including, enhanced PoW consensus, billable state, bootstrap economic model, unbeatable on-chain governance DAO, scalable standard library Stdlib, the new generation of smart contract language Move. All these designs make Starcoin is valuable. Here are some examples to demonstrate Starcoin’s value. - Example 1. Enhanced PoW Consensus: On-chain value belongs to everyone in the blockchain, not only particular one person. To serve the on-chain value, PoW could do better than Pos. There are many optimizations in PoW on Starcoin. - Example 2. On-chain Governance: Our world is changing fast, blockchain does the same! With on-chain governance, Starcoin has the capability of embracing changes. - Example 3. Billable state: On-chain value is rare, the layer 1 should focus on value selection, not information storage.Over time, the layer 1 will filter value, and at the same time,clean out expired information which was considered to be valuable, but now is not.Billable state can easily solve the state explosion problem which caused by expired information. - Example 4. Move: Starcoin smart contract programming language Move is designed to define custom resource types, and one of the important features of resource is value. That is to say, Move can empower on-chain value. We have mentioned in the layer 1 on Starcoin, we focus on value streams. Let’s move on to the Layer 2 of Starcoin. The layer 2 is committed to connecting each person. With the layer 2 technology on Starcoin, everyone could enjoy the convenience which blockchain has offered, such as: micropayment, listening to music,watching movies, and playing games. From a technical perspective, Starcoin has many solutions,such as: state channels, rollup, side chains,etc. With these solutions, details of the technical things are hidden to the general user, users can use these solutions just as using a faucet. Move is a resource-oriented programming language. Just in my own opinion, Move is a revolution of smart contract programming language. Why am I saying this? Our common programming language is information-oriented. But, information can be copied and transmitted at any time. Here is a simple example, one twitter post, you can forward without any notice,this is information. Your identity number or your phone number is a string, you can use in bank A, while use in bank B, this is also information.On the contrary, the resource is different with information,and it’s rare, it’s impossible to copy. It’s a secure bug if you can copy one-dollar to two-dollar. In a centralized scenario, using information to express resources, to ensure information data right, we need to do lots of manual tests. But, at the end, we have to change the database if we still have errors. But in a decentralized scenario, changing databases is impossible. What do we need to do? We need resource-oriented programming, to make sure that resources cannot be copied and changed at virtual machine level. This is the core of Move. DeFi has attracted huge attention, Starcoin also concentrates on DeFi. With layer 1 technology and Move, selecting value and empowering value have been done. Next, let the value flow to achieve value reinvention, this is the vision of Starcoin. Some people who have been paying attention to Starcoin should have noticed that Starcoin’s DeFi infrastructure and products have been implemented and be able to launch soon. DeFi, from value selection to value empowerment, to achieve value reinvention, at the end, on the layer 2, everyone will be connected together. Centering the value,blockchain has made a friendly closed ecological system. Why does Starcoin use Move? This is a brilliant question. First,we need to realise one fact: everything is moving forward, from binary to assembly language to high-level programming language. The same is true for smart contracts, from Bitcoin Script to Ethereum Solidity, this is an advance. But, is Solidity the best one? In fact, endless security issues have been bothering us and restricted the growth of the entire industry, Poly Network attack is notorious,a hacker has stolen more than $611 million in funds from the cross-chain Poly Network. In a financial sense,security is more important than ever. We cannot ignore these issues if we hope that blockchain is sustainable, we need more powerful smart contract language. Move is designed to meet all the requirements. We have said above, common programming is information-oriented, you can copy and change the information any time, just like a twitter post. In a centralized scenario, much detailed information cannot be exposed, we have many methods to solve these issues. But In the decentralized era,to implement DeFi and Opensource, even subtle errors will be magnified to be a big problem. For example, simple addition and subtraction operation could have significant security hazards, some real bugs such as: fake deposit attack,over money creation,overflow,ect. All these bugs are caused by the subtle errors.This is a big challenge to developers. Resource-oriented programming can solve many security issues. Let’s get a quick feel of what resources are. One item cannot be obtained easily if it has real values, we can treat this item as a resource. Resource-oriented programming means this resource cannot be copied and changed arbitrarily. From a technical perspective,Move can guarantee that resources can only be transmitted,cannot be copied or implicitly discarded in Move virtual machines. Code cannot be compiled if you try to copy or modify or discard. From a non-technical perspective, a resource is quite like a real house. You must have equivalent values and resources to build a house, this is a real trade. To finance and values,a resource is a more appropriate abstraction compared to information.Therefore, we can also say that Move has enhanced the financial scene through resources. To put it more succinctly, Move is a smart contract language that does not affect cryptocurrency functions. We have taken tons of research and comparison when we decided to use Move as a smart contract programming language, we even considered developing a new language.But after learning Move, we think Move is our best choice. You are really welcome to keep your eyes on our competition “Hackathon” which is held by the Starcoin community, you will meet some blockchain geniuses. How do you develop applications on Starcoin? We already have Starcoin public blockchain, Stdlib, browser plug-in StarMask, Starcoin browser, Starcoin vote Dapp. At this stage, many open source communities have join us, below are some applications we are working on: - 1 Cross-chain Bridge: including cross other public blockchain and exchanges. The initial version is ready now, and is being launched in phase, and will further maintain. - 2 Oracle：Starcoin has developed a completed Oracle standard protocol, an oracle has been developed according to the protocol,which can provide off-chain data to Starcoin, and will be deployed on the main network. - 3 NFT: Move has a natural advantage in NFT, Starcoin has developed a complete standard protocol, and has been integrating with other NFT platforms.StarMask is going to display NFT soon. - 4 Swap: Starcoin will support in a short time, we are preparing for releasing. - 5 Lending: It’s almost done now, and currently, in the test and optimization stage. - 6 IDO: Starcoin has integrated with one IDO platform, and will be deployed on Starcoin soon. More applications will come soon, some applications are developed, and also integrated with some famous platforms, what we have done is for value reinvention. We are open and really appreciate everyone’s help!

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Conveyor - The Automata Network approach to tackling MEV¶ At Automata, we have created Conveyor, a service that ingests and outputs transactions in a determined order. This creates a front-running-free zone that removes the chaos of transaction reordering. When transactions are fed into Conveyor, it determines the order of the incoming transactions and makes it impossible for block producers to perform the following: - Inject new transactions into the Conveyor output: The inserted transactions bypassing Conveyor is detectable by anyone because of signature mismatch. - Delete ordered transactions: Transactions accepted by Conveyor are broadcasted everywhere so transactions cannot be deleted unless ALL block producers are colluding and censoring the transactions at the same time. From the DEX’s perspective, they can choose to accept either - Ordered transactions from Automata’s Conveyor which is free from transaction reordering and other front-running transactions - Other unordered transactions (which include front-running etc) that may negatively impact their users Why should users trust Conveyor?¶ Automata’s Conveyor runs on a decentralized compute plane backed by many Geode instances. Each Geode instance can be attested so anyone can publicly verify that the Geode is running on a system with genuine hardware (i.e., CPU) and that the Geode application code matches the version that is open-sourced and audited. This provides a strong guarantee that: - The Geode code is untampered with - The Geode data is inaccessible to even Geode providers (In which case they cannot act on said data to front-run transactions) Importantly, Automata’s Conveyor is a chain-agnostic solution to the MEV issue, and works seamlessly on various platforms — zero modifications needed. Here’s a demo on how trading pairs on Uniswap can be protected. An industry-first: Oblivious RAM¶ In fully public computation, access pattern leakage is not negligible as everything is exposed. But in privacy-preserving computation, any tiny bit of information leakage becomes a significant issue. Studies have shown that access pattern leakage leads to exposure of sensitive information such as private keys from searchable encryption and trusted computing. This is where the Oblivious RAM algorithm comes into play. Automata’s implementation is the first-of-its-kind in the blockchain industry, providing an exceedingly high degree of privacy in dApps. This greatly reduces the probability of user privacy being leaked even as access patterns are being monitored and analyzed by malicious actors. The Automata team has authored multiple research papers on state-of-the-art ORAM and hardware technologies to enhance the privacy and performance of existing networks. - Robust P2P Primitives Using SGX Enclaves RAID 2020 - PRO-ORAM: Practical Read-Only Oblivious RAM RAID 2019 - OblivP2P: An Oblivious Peer-to-Peer Content Sharing System USENIX Security 2016 - Preventing Page Faults from Telling Your Secrets Asia CCS 2016 The Fair Sequencing Service by ChainLink¶ The idea behind FSS is to have an oracle network order the transactions sent to a particular contract SC, including both user transactions and oracle reports. Oracle nodes ingest transactions and then reach consensus on their ordering, rather than allowing a single leader to dictate it. FSS is a framework for implementing ordering policies, of which Aequitas (protocol for order-fairness in addition to consistency and liveness) is one example. It can alternatively support simpler approaches, such as straightforward encryption of transactions, which can then be decrypted in a threshold manner by oracle nodes after ordering. It will also support various policies for inserting oracle reports into a stream of transactions. (It can even support MEV auctions, if desired.) - Blog post: https://blog.chain.link/chainlink-fair-sequencing-services-enabling-a-provably-fair-defi-ecosystem/ - Whitepaper (to be released later) Arbitrum by Offchain Labs¶ Arbitrum is against MEVA and FaaS. 3 Modes of Arbitrum: Single Sequencer: L2 MEV-Potential (Mainnet Beta) For Arbitrum’s initial, flagship Mainnet beta release, the Sequencer will be controlled by a single entity. This entity has transaction ordering rights within the narrow / 15 minute window; users are trusting the Sequencer not to frontrun them. Distributed Sequencer With Fair Ordering: L2-MEV-minimized (Mainnet Final Form) The Arbitrum flagship chain will eventually have a distributed set of independent parties controlling the Sequencer. They will collectively propose state updates via the first BFT algorithm that enforces fair ordering within consensus (Aequitas). Here, L2 MEV is only possible if >1/3 of the sequencing-parties maliciously collude, hence “MEV-minimized.” No Sequencer: No L2 MEV A chain can be created in which no permissioned entities have Sequencing rights. Ordering is determined entirely by the Inbox contract; lose the ability to get lower latency than L1, but gain is that no party involved in L2, including Arbitrum validators, has any say in transaction ordering, and thus no L2 MEV enters the picture. Traditionally, fairness in a blockchain has been defined in absolute terms, i.e. once a transaction is seen by a sufficient number of validators, it will be executed in some block, soon. Vega's proposal is to add a module to blockchains that supports the concept of relative fairness so that competing transactions may be sequenced under a known and understood protocol, and not subject to a validator’s discretion. "If there is a time t such that all honest validators saw a before t and b after t, then a must be scheduled before b”. This is a property that can be assured of at any time with a minimal impact on performance. To get the best combination, their current approach is a hybrid of the two. In normal operation, the protocol will assure block fairness. If the network detects that this causes a bottleneck, it temporarily switches to the timed approach (thus sacrificing a little fairness for performance), before switching back once the bottleneck is resolved. However, Vega will ultimately make the level of fairness customisable by market. A collaboration between BalancerLabs and Gnosis, CowSwap is a DEX that leverages batch auctions to provide MEV protection, plus integrate with liquidity sources across DEXs to offer traders the best prices. When two traders each hold an asset the other wants, an order can be settled directly between them without an external market maker or liquidity provider. Any excess is settled in the same transaction with the best available AMM. The transaction is sent by professional “solvers” which set tight slippage bounds. Solvers compete with each other to achieve best prices for the user. Veedo by StarkWare¶ VeeDo is StarkWare’s STARK-based Verifiable Delay Function (VDF), and its PoC is now live on Mainnet. VeeDo's time-locks allow information to be sealed for a predetermined period of time (during the sequencing phase), and then made public. 2 approaches using privacy to minimize MEV - Time-locks as part of the protocol layer - Time-locks on Ethereum with smart contracts - supported today LibSubmarine is an open-source smart contract library that protects your contract against front-runners by temporarily hiding transactions on-chain. Sikka's MEV solution to censorship and frontrunning problems is using a technique called Threshold Decryption, as a plugin to the Tendermint Core BFT consensus engine to create mempool level privacy. With this plugin, users are able to submit encrypted transactions to the blockchain, which are only decrypted and executed after being committed to a block by a quorum of 2/3 validators. Shutter Network is an open-source project that aims to prevent frontrunning and malicious MEV on Ethereum by using a threshold cryptography-based distributed key generation (DKG) protocol. A Shutter transaction is a transaction protected from frontrunning in the target smart contract system. It therefore passes through a sequence of stages before it is executed. A Shutter transaction flow: - Created and encrypted in the user's wallet; - Sent to the batcher contract as a standard Ethereum transaction; - Picked up and decrypted by the keypers; - Sent to the executor contract, and - Forwarded to the target contract.

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Gone are the days when people earned from traditional ways. The Digital era has brought uncountable opportunities and technologies along with the astounding platforms where people have been enabled to earn without even moving from their place. Yes, if we start counting the blessings of digital innovations, it will surely take us forever. Platforms like crypto-currencies and NFTs have provided us millions of opportunities of starting earning without even having a business of our own. Yes, that’s true. Let us give you an insight into crypto-currency and NFTs that how people can work them out to make a big earning and how people are already doing so. Crypto-currency and NFTs: Crypto-currency is a digital payment system that needs no banks to verify the transactions made. Stored in digital wallets, cryptocurrency received the name for its encrypted verified transactions. The NFTS is known as “non-fungible tokens” (non-interchangeable, non-exchangeable) and are simply pieces of digital content that are associated with the Blockchain and can be sold and bought using this Blockchain technology. But at the same time, they aren’t fungible which is something that makes them a different type of asset. Roughly speaking, a random example of NFT may be a unique digital artwork or an in-game item. Almost 16% of our population has already invested in cryptocurrencies. Anyone who can draft, design, or build a physical product can start a business of making a person’s digital NFT into a physical item. Among many people playing with crypto and NFT, we have a cryptocurrency and NFT expert who has been inspiring many around him. Yes, we are talking about @CryptoCasz. @CryptoCasz is a crypto and an NFT expert who is from Philadelphia, PA in the United States. A handsome amount of youth has been inspired by his work. We did a short interview with him and would love to share it with you. Hi sir! We’ve already heard a lot about your expertise; please tell us about your educational life. Well, along with pursuing my skills in digital platforms, I studied at the University of Pennsylvania. I have two degrees, one in mathematics and the other in physics. You have spent a lot of time with various big names we see today, tell us something about your trading journey? “I was recruited as a Quant to a hedge fund and I eventually began trading. From there I got into crypto and NFTs. That’s all about it.” People have seen you being a helping hand to the community. What do you teach to your community? “I simply help my people get hands-on today’s advanced technological platforms like Blockchain, crypto, web3, and NFTs.” Can you share how much you earned from your skills for the sake of youth motivation? “Yeah why not, I made $10M in 2021.” Woahh!! That’s a hell of an amount. Amazing job you’ve done sir. We also witnessed you attracting a big crowd on social media upon your Twitter. Is that where our reader can switch to you? “Yes, definitely they can. My Twitter handle is @CryptoCasz and has over 83.8K followers there. I do marketing, promotions and advising, and much more there. I share my latest activities with my follower and am the most active on Twitter you may say. So yes, readers can follow me there. Khalil ur Rehman is a proud born and raised in Abbottabad. Khalil has worked as a journalist for nearly a decade having contributed to several large publications including the Yahoo News and The Verge. As a journalist for The Hear Up, Khalil covers climate and science news. [email protected]

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This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. There's been a Cambrian explosion of blockchains in recent years, supporting everything from cryptocurrencies to logistics systems. But by and large, they have been developed in silos and it's hard to share information between them. Now researchers are trying to build new channels to help these networks speak to each other. A blockchain is a way to keep records of transactions or exchanges of data without relying on a central authority. Multiple users maintain a copy of the ledger and must come to agreement on any new additions by following a protocol called a consensus mechanism, which makes it hard for anyone to make fraudulent changes. But beyond these basic ingredients, they often have little in common. The kind of data they share, consensus mechanisms, network designs, and a host of other characteristics vary wildly depending on what they're used for. While this diversity of approaches means blockchains can be tailored for a wide range of applications—from monitoring industrial equipment to hosting smart contracts that automate insurance payouts—it also means they struggle to share information. “We've got these blockchains that are closed worlds that cannot interact with each other,” says Stefan Schulte, and a professor at the Hamburg University of Technology in Germany. As organizations use them to support a growing number of business processes, says Schulte, this inability to communicate could become problematic. If a logistics company tracks their shipments on a blockchain that can’t talk to the one they use to make payments it could cause plenty of headaches. One way is to “burn” an asset on the source blockchain. Third parties can then set up the asset on the receiving blockchain for a small reward. Solving this problem is a booming area of research though, and last month Schulte and his colleagues presented a potential workaround at the IEEE International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications. Their approach relies on blockchain relays, which are essentially smart contracts running on one blockchain that can verify events on another blockchain. If a user wants to transfer an asset they first destroy, or “burn,” it on the source blockchain, which is typically done by sending the asset to a user address that doesn’t exist. This transaction also includes details of the asset and which blockchain and user they want to send it to. Third parties monitor the source blockchain for these burn transactions and then send them to the relay for a small reward, which verifies the burn transaction and recreates the asset on the new blockchain. The challenge, says Schulte, is that these verification processes invoke transaction fees that can quickly make the approach impractical. So they created a verification on-demand system where the relay assumes transactions are valid unless they are disputed. To prevent fraudulent submissions, the third-parties have to put up a stake of cryptocurrency to take part and if they submit an invalid transaction others can dispute it and win their stake as a reward. The approach reduces the cost of running the relay by as much as 92 percent, says Schulte, but at €5.77 ($6.52) it’s still far from a solved problem. And while this scheme might work well for public blockchains whose data is readily accessible, such as those behind the Bitcoin and Ether cryptocurrencies, there are a growing number of private blockchains that are not so open. These networks may house sensitive commercial data that can’t be broadcast to the public and are often more tightly controlled. Communicating between these closed systems can be tricky, but a potential workaround is to create trusted gateways to relay details of cross-chain transactions, says Gang Wang, an applied research engineer at Emerson Automation Solutions in Texas. In a paper due to be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Blockchain next week, Wang and colleagues describe a way to use a “trusted execution environment” (TEE)—a secure area of a processor—to create a trustworthy link between any two private blockchains without relying on a third party. Another way is to create a “blockchain of blockchains.” When a user submits a request to transfer assets or data, other participants on the source blockchain check that the transaction is valid (for example, that the user owns the assets in question). If it is, they lock up the assets involved in the transaction and tell a trusted gateway running on a TEE. If the gateway receives enough positive responses to meet some pre-defined security threshold it then sends confirmation to the gateway of the destination blockchain, which can trust the message, because it has been produced by a process running on a tamper-proof bit of hardware according to a shared security protocol. The second gateway then passes details of the transaction to participants on its network who verify if it is valid and can be executed on that blockchain. If enough say it is, the gateway passes the message back to the first blockchain where the assets are unlocked and the transaction goes ahead. If the transaction isn't valid they instead send a release message that tells the first blockchain to abort the transaction. Wang says the approach is well-suited to applications requiring high-speed transfers. Rather than waiting for the target blockchain to add the transaction to its ledger, which can take seconds or minutes depending on the network, the gateway checks if it is valid in milliseconds. One other way of facilitating transfers between blockchains is to create a “blockchain of blockchains,” says Rafael Belchior, a PhD candidate at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal. This is the approach being pursued by projects like Polkadot and Cosmos and involves a central blockchain dedicated to passing messages between others. Each of the subsidiary blockchains can have their own security model, consensus mechanism and specific use cases. The catch, says Belchior, is that all of these blockchains must be built using the same development framework, which includes a shared communication protocol. As a result, the approach can’t interface with existing blockchains or those built using other tools. Achieving efficient and secure interoperability between any two blockchains still faces considerable challenges, says Belchior. There are still no standards for how blockchains should talk to each other, he says, and it's difficult to evaluate and compare interoperability solutions, because there are no tools to systematically analyze interactions across multiple blockchains at once. Perhaps most crucially, though, there are no formal security models that spell out the precise specifications required to guarantee a secure interoperability scheme. “I think only after this kind of work could you have a more stable place to start designing your interoperability solutions,” says Belchior. Correction 6 Dec. 2021: Stefan Schulte is currently on the faculty at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany and not at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria, as the original version of this story reported. This article appears in the February 2022 print issue as “Blockchains Talk Amongst Themselves." Edd Gent is a freelance science and technology writer based in Bangalore, India. His writing focuses on emerging technologies across computing, engineering, energy and bioscience. He's on Twitter at @EddytheGent and email at edd dot gent at outlook dot com. His PGP fingerprint is ABB8 6BB3 3E69 C4A7 EC91 611B 5C12 193D 5DFC C01B. His public key is here. DM for Signal info.

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With time, storage technology has evolved. From traditional storage spaces like Cloud, we are in the era of technologies like Blockchain, Database, and Data Warehouse. These technologies have made it easier to manage a huge chunk of data for IT operations. Among all these technologies, Blockchain has grown into markets beyond expectations since its inception. Blockchain in businesses is now involved in multiple operations. From automating processes to securing fintech applications, the technology has gained quite a good amount of attention as well. Paired up with other technologies such as Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Smart Contracts, and more, Blockchain technology has proved its efficiency is only limited by our progress in finding its uses. A Statista report states, by 2024, forecast spending on Blockchain solutions globally might reach a threshold of $19 billion from the forecasted spending of $6.6 billion in 2021. In this blog, furthermore, we are shortlisting a few crucial characteristics of Blockchain technology along with a few crucial consensuses that innovate modern business processes. So, if you find the topic interesting, stick with us until the end of this blog. What is Blockchain? In simple terms, Blockchain is a decentralized ledger created for better performance, cybersecurity, and privacy. The ledger is dependent on several nodes which record transactions without centralized control. Blockchain stores the data in blocks. After each block that is filled with the data, a new block is added automatically in chronological order. Blockchain technology offers benefits like tamper-proof data storage practices, decentralized storage spaces, and more. Characteristics of Blockchain As a report published by ResearchGate defines it so well, Blockchain is designed to offer better reliability, security, and control. The major characteristics of Blockchain are proof. Let’s look at these characteristics. - Private Blockchain- As the name suggests, private Blockchain servers are created and owned by individual organizations. With a network of trusted nodes, owners have more control over these types of servers. - Public Blockchain- Cryptos such as Bitcoin are supported by these types of Blockchain servers. On a public Blockchain, individuals can register and make entries in the distributed ledger by following terms and conditions defined by server developers. Users signup on crypto Blockchains to execute transactions, mine crypto, and more. - Permissioned Blockchain- These Blockchain servers are usually created for many parties. A few organizations will have access to one Permissioned Blockchain server to execute corporate tasks. - Decentralization- Private Blockchain servers work on eliminating the interference of third parties in a trusted environment. Private Blockchains are limited to organizations and offer a limited decentralized environment for processes to happen. However, in Permissioned Blockchains, multiple parties can onboard the server. The condition is, none of these parties will have full control over the Blockchain server. - Transparency- Blockchain servers record tamper-proof transactions with details such as timestamps, the entity of the user, and more. These records can neither be modified nor deleted. Thus, it is always possible to track the user and the timestamp of any suspicious transactions to stop or predict possible cyber attacks. Consensus of Blockchain Consensus algorithms are the pillar of Blockchain servers. These consensus algorithms help in making Blockchain servers more reliable and secure to process transactions without manual approval. If you are familiar with Blockchain already, you must have heard about a few consensus algorithms already. Let’s have a look at them. - Proof of Work (PoW)- Used by many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin today, PoW was initially published as an idea by Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor. PoW connects nodes in a trusted environment by adding them to a connected server. PoW helps in channelizing and creating new blocks on a crypto block server. The process is generally known as mining and rewards with currencies for the mining processes. PoW requires a huge amount of computing power and resources. Thus, it is dependent on a huge hardware configuration. - Proof of Stake (PoS)- An alternative to PoW, this consensus mechanism considers a number of coins by a validator for stakes to validate block transactions. PoS is designed to reduce the requirement of computational power. In parallel, it also reduces the advantages cyber attackers can have to make the server more secure. To get qualified as a miner, coin owners are required to fulfill the minimum staking requirements. Even after that, PoS selects miners randomly. The ultimate purpose of designing is to reduce resource consumption. Compared to PoW, it is more eco-friendly and scalable. - Proof of Capacity- In simple words, if you have free hard drive space, and you want to get selected as a miner, you can invest the free hard drive space into the mining process. The more space you have, the more chances you get of being selected as a miner. Once you mine a block, you get block rewards. - Proof of Elapsed Time- In this Blockchain consensus, validators or nodes get a waiting time. Thus, every validator has a fair chance due to the waiting time that they get from the server. Nodes with the least waiting time get selected first as miners. - Proof of History (PoH)- This consensus focuses on verifying the passage of time between events. It evaluates sequential steps in a verification process through a set of computation processes. Currently, Solana is using PoH by hashing its transactions and events with the SHA256 hash function. This allows Solana to come with outcomes that are unpredictable. With a timestamp on each transaction, it is easier to verify that in what sequence transactions took place. Thus, human intervention is not required for such use cases. Apart from the Consensuses of Blockchain that we discussed above, there are more consensuses getting innovated. For instance, Proof of Activity (PoA) is a hybrid that uses patterns from PoS and PoW. On the other hand, Proof of Burn (PoB) requires coin owners to send some coins to a wallet from where they won’t be able to access them again. However, PoB increases their chance of getting selected as miners. In the end, hopefully, this blog was informative and resourceful for you. You can explore more tech blogs on the website to find out more about what’s going on in technology markets. - Why is Blockchain a safer storage space compared to traditional cloud storage servers? Well, Blockchain offers a tamper-proof ledger. To modify a process, a user will have to make a new entry with new algorithms. With each entry made on the server, there are details such as timestamps, the entity of the user, and more are added as well. So, in case if cyberattacks are attempted, it is easy to track the source of the attack down. - Is Point of Stake the future? PoS is the future and will gain more popularity with time. Why? Because PoS is an eco-friendly option that also reduces the reliance on hardware. So, PoS has the potential to make crypto mining more affordable and accessible. - What can be the cost of building a blockchain application? That depends on many factors like features, region, and more. For instance, North American developers will cost you more compared to Indian developers. So, it depends on where you hire developers for your project. The cost of building a blockchain application can range between $10,000 to $200,000. So, it all depends upon your plan. Andrea Laura is a very creative writer and active contributor who love to share informative news or updates on various topics and brings great information to her readers. Being writing as her hobby, Andrea has come out with many interesting topics and information that attracts readers to unravel her write-up. Her content is featured on many mainstream sites & blogs.

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You’ve heard the term, but what on earth does it mean? Let’s start with the basics. A blockchain is a data structure that makes it possible to create a digital ledger of transactions and share it among a distributed network of computers. It uses cryptography to allow each participant on the network to manipulate the ledger in a secure way without the need for a central, often fee-charging authority. Bitcoin and the mechanics of blockchain If you are familiar with blockchain technology, it may be because of Bitcoin, the first app built using the platform in 2008. Bitcoin’s main premise is to digitally send payments between any two people or organizations without a third-party financial institution. Every time a transaction is made, it’s recorded on the blockchain ledger and each new block is tied to the prior ones via digital signature. Once a block of data is recorded on the ledger, it’s difficult to change or remove, and in order for someone to add a block to the chain, network members have to first ensure it’s valid. A few key components underpin blockchain technology. First up is the network, which can vary depending on the organization setting up the blockchain. It might include everyone in the public domain (as in Bitcoin) or an exclusive group of known participants. The computers within each network are called nodes. Then, there is the consensus mechanism, or the set of rules used to verify each transaction. In the Bitcoin blockchain, for instance, the consensus mechanism is called proof of work. Network participants run algorithms to confirm the digital signatures attached to blocks in order to validate new transactions. Once approved, transactions are packaged into a block. They are then re-distributed to all the nodes, which are responsible for ensuring that all records match. For his article for the Wall Street JournalCIO Journal blog, writer Steven Norton consulted Guardtime, a company that sells blockchain-based products and services to organizations like Ericsson AB. Guardtime provided this example of a complex blockchain in action: “Assume an organization has 10 transactions per second. Each of those transactions receives its own digital signature. Using a tree structure, those signatures are combined and given a single digital fingerprint — a unique representation of those transactions at a specific time.” “Once validated, that fingerprint is stored in a blockchain that all the participants can see. A copy of that ledger is also sent back to each organization to store locally. Those signatures can be continuously verified against what is in the blockchain, giving companies a way to monitor the state and integrity of a particular asset or transaction.” “Anytime a change to data or an asset is proposed, a new, unique digital fingerprint is created. That fingerprint is sent to each client node for validation. If the fingerprints don’t match, or if the change to the data doesn’t fit with the network’s agreed-upon rules, the transaction may not be validated. This setup means the entire network, rather than a central authority, is responsible for ensuring the validity of each transaction.” Blockchain’s role in digital transformation According to Bruce Hughes, an analyst for KuppingerCole who recently wrote about the benefits of digital business process management with blockchain technology for Computer Weekly, the emergence of distributed and decentralized ledger technologies with smart contracts and the Internet of Things will be instrumental in disrupting and revolutionizing business process management and business process optimization. “Blockchains can holistically manage steps and relationships where participants will share the same data source, such as financial relationships and transactions connected to each step,” Hughes said. “Security and accountability is factored in, as well as compliance with government regulations along with internal rules and processes. The result is consistency, reductions in costs and time delays, improved quality, and reduced risks.” Digital transformation is obviously one of the more complex challenges an enterprise can undertake, but the integration of IoT with blockchain makes it much easier. Considering the number of partners (internal, external, or both) involved in any given business process, a system in which a multitude of electronic parties can securely communicate, collaborate, and transact without human intervention is highly agile and efficient. “Enterprises that embrace this phenomenon will be able to provide a better user experience, a more consistent workflow, more streamlined operations and value-added services, as well as gain competitive advantage and differentiation,” said Hughes. Learn 5 key lessons from innovative IT leaders on how you can improve the outcomes of your own digital transformation in this free eBook: Driving Digital Transformation via Rapid Application Development. But despite the obvious benefits, blockchain technology has been slow to catch on in the enterprise. One major reason is a general lack of standards. For example, should an organization use an open network or a permissioned (private) one? Who should regulate the technology to make sure blockchains are effectively regulating themselves, and what cybersecurity threats might arise that threaten a blockchain’s integrity? Especially in the realm of manufacturing and supply chain management, warned Hughes, security authentication, management and communication protocols for IoT devices are still at an immature level, and distributed ledger technology itself often lacks the ability to handle and distribute large amounts of data. Then, there’s the issue of interoperability. What software should be employed, and how do we get a large network of participants, most of which have a complicated web of information technology solutions in and out of the cloud, to agree to use the same technology? “Devices and equipment from different suppliers are currently unable to communicate with each other or the enterprise IT systems,” said Hughes. With blockchain still in its infancy, these are all questions that financial institutions are beginning to answer as they experiment with different implementations. Those of us involved in digital transformation efforts in any industry should watch carefully and make note of their learnings. One thing is for certain, though, blockchain isn’t going away. “It still remains vital to look at blockchains much like network standards: focus on the needs and the value proposition while avoiding getting too focused on specific, low-level technologies,” suggested Hughes. “Also, avoid too much investment in blockchain products beyond proof-of-concepts and experimentation until decisive standards and trends with a wide backing of key industry players occur. This relates in particular to smart contracts, smart objects and the emerging blockchain as a service.” Have you dipped your toe into blockchain? What were the results? Comments are in the sidebar social sharebar.

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You can access Mirror through the officialWeb App. Welcome to the Mirror documentation site. What is Mirror? Mirror is a DeFi protocol powered by smart contracts on the Terra network that enables the creation of synthetic assets called Mirrored Assets (mAssets). mAssets mimic the price behavior of real-world assets and give traders anywhere in the world open access to price exposure without the burdens of owning or transacting real assets. The minting of mAssets is decentralized and is undertaken by users throughout the network by opening a position and depositing collateral. Mirror ensures that there is always sufficient collateral within the protocol to cover mAssets, and also manages markets for mAssets by listing them on Terraswap against UST. The Mirror Token (MIR) is minted by the protocol and distributed as a reward to reinforce behavior that secures the ecosystem. With it, Mirror ensures liquid mAsset markets by rewarding MIR to users who stake LP Tokens obtained through providing liquidity. Also to incentivize users to ensure mAssets to mimic the price behavior of real-world assets, users who stake sLP Tokens obtained through shorting mAssets are rewarded with MIR. MIR is valuable as it is can be staked to receive voting privileges and to earn a share of the protocol's CDP withdrawal fees. Mirror is a project developed and steered by its community: its markets are maintained by its own users through MIR incentives, and the protocol evolves with new ideas through democratic governance.

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I wonder what makes the bitcoin network decentralized? Do nodes participate in making the network decentralized? or is it just the miners and all about the hash power to take over the network aka 51%< attack ? It depends on what you mean by decentralization. There is a technical meaning, and an intuitive one. I'll talk about the first one first. A decentralized system is one which by design functions and remains secure without the presence of a trusted central party (or parties). I can't tell you what part of Bitcoin makes it have this property - it just happens to be the case that it does, at least under certain assumptions. Both miners and nodes matter. We need miners to avoid a central transaction approves with censorship rights. You avoid the need to trust that miners produce honest blocks by validating their chain yourself (= running a node). Often the word "decentralization" is used in a much more practical sense, where far more aspects of the design and real-world implementation are included. It's hard to say what this includes, as there isn't a good definition. Does the entire ecosystem just go along with what a single, perhaps small, developer team proposes? That's arguably a form of centralization in practice, but it's one at a social/human layer, not one that is a technical design property of the system. Similarly, does all trading go through one or a few exchanges? That too can be considered a central party if its relevance to the ecosystem becomes too great. The same is true for wallet software for example - if everyone is using the same wallet software that auto-update, then perhaps the person with the keys to push such updates is a centrally trusted party. I personally dislike this use of the term decentralization as it is far too vague, and unbounded. Are Intel and AMD and ARM central parties, because everyone uses chips produced/designed by them? For this reason I'd reserve the use of the term decentralization for the technical design, and use something like "trust minimization" for all the rest. 'Decentralized' is not a binary distinction. There is no point at which suddenly something is decentralized, or not. For the bitcoin network to function there is some level of decentralization required though, as otherwise the guarantees of censorship resistance will become less strong. Bitcoin is defined from the bottom-up, not the top-down! Bitcoin full nodes and bitcoin miners are distinct in their function. In short: A decentralized network of full nodes helps to ensure that the network's rules remain unchanged, as each node will independently verify the network state for it's own purpose. For example, if there weren't a lot of nodes, then a majority of the nodes that did exist could perhaps collude to change the rules (there is nuance to this though). A decentralized network of miners helps to ensure that bitcoin remains secure and censorship resistant, as a more distributed network hashpower helps to ensure that not single entity (or group of colluding/coerced entities) will be able to perform a majority attack. Without a sufficient amount of decentralization of both nodes and miners, bitcoin ceases to be very interesting or useful. What makes the bitcoin network decentralized? Lot of things together contribute in making Bitcoin decentralized, however most important is requirements to run a fully validating node are low so anyone can do it. - No premine - No contentious hard forks to do rollbacks in past because any project or exchange got hacked - Block limits and scaling in layers - Proof of Work used for consensus - Soft fork in 2017 - Segwit and related events - Nothing official (website, client etc.), founder is anonymous and not active anymore to influence development - Proposing changes with BIPs, soft forks and involvement of everyone is a decentralized process - People involved value decentralization over other things

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17 May 2016. Fast-Path: Verifying a Txout Spend In a Block; Slow-Path: Calculating. a per- block TXO MMRs, committed by a master MMR for all blocks). Potential Network Disruption 23 Sep 2017. Potential Network Disruption happens when employees with a high number of relationships that they Automatic discovery of master by sentinel · python redis redis-sentinel redis-py. A redis master can be discovered via sentinel using: from. 6 Jan 2014. (1) Gregory Maxwell, Adam Back, and others on #bitcoin-wizards contributed. signature nonce value from a transaction input, saving about 45 bytes per txout. to specify n-of-m master pubkeys, using the nonce to generate derived ones. 3) Peter Todd, [Bitcoin-development] Privacy and blockchain data, 6 Mar 2018. Transaction replaceability was enabled in the first version of Bitcoin but was. Core 0.12.0 to 0.16.0; 1.3 Bitcoin Knots; 1.4 Peter Todd's full-RBF patchset. in Bitcoin Core PR#6871 and specifically the master branch commits. Disable Detective for a master account across Regions. When a master account disables Detective, the master account's behavior graph in each Region is. Contribute to petertodd/stealth-addresses-ref-implementation development by.

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A decentralized autonomous organization is a system without any central leadership. These organizations are transparent and community-centric and generally give their members the power to vote on proposals and updates, proportional to a member’s potential. Decisions are from the bottom-up, owned and managed by their members. DAOs are governed and organized by specific rules coded on a blockchain. DAO operates through smart contracts, essentially a set of codes that automatically execute whenever a set of criteria are met. These smart contracts define the organization’s rules. Once these rules are live on the blockchain, no one can change them except the entire group votes for them. This group makes a collective decision, and even the payments are only passed with votes. There are mainly three types of DAO membership models. Now let us see what the membership models in DAO are: Membership models often determine how voting works in a DAO and its outcomes. There are mainly three types of DAO membership models – Token-based, Share-based, and Reputation-based membership. Token-based membership models are completely permissionless. The tokens here are distributed on permissionless decentralized exchanges. Others should be earned through “proof -of work “or liquidity. A token gives a holder access to vote. Related Article: Top FAQs on Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) MakerDAO is a famous example of token-based membership where anyone can buy the voting power in the Maker protocol’s future. Share-based tokens DAOs are more permissioned ones. Any member can submit a proposal to join the DAO membership by offering some value to the organization through tokens or work. Shares represent direct voting power and ownership. Members can leave at any time with their proportionate share. MolochDAO is focused on funding Ethereum projects and is an example of share-based memberships. Here, the membership requires a proposal to assess expertise and capital to judge potential guarantees. Reputation represents proof of participation, and users need to earn voting power through participation in a DAO membership. DAOs don’t transfer ownership to contributors; the reputation cannot be bought, transferred, or delegated. In reputation-based memberships, members can submit proposals to join DAO and request reputation and tokens as a reward in exchange for their contributions. Related Article: NFT DAO: How do NFTs and DAOs coexist in DeFi? DXDAO is reputation-based governance. Here holographic consensus is leveraged to manage and coordinate funds. There is no way a potential member can buy their way inside the organization. Some other examples of DAO membership models are given below. Uniswap comes under Protocol DAO, which offers an ownership and governance mechanism to support lending platforms. It is one of the biggest Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges, developed with its governance system and token. PlearsDAO: They are DeFi leaders engaged in acquiring culturally significant digital pieces teamed up with high-priced NFT companies and other investments. Talk to our experts to build your own DAO. ConstitutionDAO: This DAO was a decentralized, crowdfunded endeavor to win a rare edition of the US constitution. This project informed many people about the potential of the DAOs for generating money. But the project didn’t succeed at the auction despite receiving over $40 million from 15,000 donors. Related article: How does DAO Governance work, and how to launch one? Bit DAO: A decentralized investment fund called BitDAO was established to enable anyone to purchase a stake in web3, de-fi startups, and initiatives. Token holders can vote on how managed capital is distributed among the projects supported by the fun. Democratization: It is decentralized, and the main focus is on a collective rather than an individual. All members in a DAO membership model can vote on moves and changes, encouraging accountability and careful thinking among members. It creates fair and equal organization without any chain of command hurdles. Transparency and Trust: Traditional organizations keep much of their operations internal, but DAOs are operated on a decentralized blockchain network where participants don’t need to know each other as the rules are embedded in a transparent, safe, and secure blockchain record. Talk to our experts to build your own DAO. Community Driven: DAO transitions from a hierarchical system to a community-led organization that supports encoding rules, not depending on the role of the members. Within the organization, each token-holder has voting rights depending on the number of tokens one holds. Over the next few years, we will see the maturation of DAOs. DAO memberships provide a platform where the entire community benefits from the organization’s profit without any central governing authority. It helps bond people together, providing an ecosystem that does not require a call for a central governing authority.DAOs offer creative opportunities; all required is to connect your wallet and buy some tokens. The different DAO membership models will help you understand this crypto movement with human collaboration.

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As we all know, the blockchain is a distributed ledger . For the book, its privacy is extremely important. Therefore, discovering some technologies to ensure its security has become the research direction of many people. Signature technology is one of them, and different signatures bring different security, such as Multi-signature, group signature, etc. Let us talk about the ring signature and blind signature in digital signature technology today. 01 ring signature The ring signature, literally means the signature that surrounds it, in fact, this is not without reason. According to legend, the idea of ring signatures originated in France in the seventeenth century. At that time, the French Minister wanted to give the King a sigh, but he did not want the King to know who was the leader. He took a circular signature. The signature was surrounded by a circle, and the name was not in order. The leader was unknown. . - Lawyer's interpretation | Blockchain's application in supply chain finance faces three major legal risks - The first vote of the year! Metaverse DNA is jointly blessed by dozens of institutions in the Nova Club Investment Agency Alliance - Featured | Some secrets about DAO that you can't see at the developer conference - Head of the World Economic Forum Blockchain: Blockchain technology can solve the crisis of trust - The implementation of blockchain technology has blossomed, and the transaction scale of several banks has exceeded 100 billion yuan - From 9.3% to 1%, what does the blockchain-based transfer method bring to Africa? The word Ring Signature was proposed by the three cryptographers Rivest, Shamir and Tauman in 2001. It is a digital signature scheme and a simplified group signature. In the ring signature, only the ring members are not. Managers do not need cooperation between ring members . The process of ring signature is as follows: 1. key generation; 2. signature; 3. signature verification. Using asymmetric encryption technology, private key encryption (signature), public key decryption, and thus can certainly determine the name of the person who has the private key. A popular example is: The first step: key generation. In a shared apartment, each person has a different gate password (public key), and each has its own bedroom door key (private key); The second step: signature confirmation . The cleaning aunt came to clean every week. The landlord asked each tenant to receive her when the cleaning aunt cleaned every week, but the tenant did not want the landlord to know who opened the door every time. When aunt wants to come in, he can only provide one public key through one of the tenants. Aunt can only open the door through the public key of a tenant every time, but because the aunt does not have a private key, he can't enter the door of each tenant, and he doesn't know who's used the public key. (The landlord can use the aunt according to whether You can enter the door to know that the tenant opened the door to the aunt, that is, the signature confirmation). The third step : signature verification . The landlord can know that the tenant opened the door to the aunt according to the aunt who can enter the door and whether it has been cleaned, but I don’t know which tenant. Ring signatures do not require managers, and because of their unconditional anonymity and unforgeability , they are more prominent in terms of privacy than general group signatures. Among the many digital currencies, Monroe is using the technology of ring signature and is recognized as one of the best privacy cryptocurrencies . 02 blind signature Like a ring signature, blind signature is a special digital signature technique. The blind signature is known for the fact that the signature person does not see the specific content of the signed document. It has two notable features: one is that the signer is invisible to the content of the message; the other is that the signature cannot be tracked after the signature is published. Signature . In 1983, David Chaum proposed blind signatures primarily to achieve unlinkability. Someone uses a very vivid example to describe blind signatures: First put the hidden file into the envelope. No one can read it. Signing the document is by placing a copy of the paper in the envelope. When the signer signs the envelope, his signature is signed on the paper through the carbon paper. In this way, the signer does not see the content of the signature, and even if the signature is made public, the signer cannot know which signature the signature was. Some people will think that the signer can't see the signature content. Who is willing to sign it? What application scenarios are there? For example, when you buy things everyday, cash expenses are difficult for others to track; but when you transfer money online, it is easy for third parties (such as banks) to check their consumption. The role of blind signature is to Don't let the bank know where your money is going. The most important thing in the blind signature operation process is the blinding technique. The data of the signer is presented after being blinded. After the signature and after blinding, the signer cannot be reminded of the previous blinded data. . The untrackability of ring signatures and blind signatures is a major breakthrough in signature technology, but it also gives criminals the opportunity to continue to improve their functions, such as blind signatures and the emergence of fair blind signatures. With the development of digital currency, digital signature technology has also become an important and urgent research direction. What kind of signature technology can better protect the privacy of our digital assets is still being explored. Do you still know or understand what digital signature technology? Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments section. Author | Sanli Produced|Baihua blockchain (ID: hellobtc) 『Declaration : This series of content is only for the introduction of blockchain science, and does not constitute any investment advice or advice. If there are any errors or omissions, please leave a message. You are not allowed to reprint this article by any third party without the authorization of the "Baihua Blockchain" sourced from this article. 』

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Image Source: PRESANS - Centralized Money, Decentralized Nation States, Distributed Tech In 2020, globalism is receding, giving way to aggressive nationalist movements. This trend harms globalists that benefit from a well integrated global economy. As global policy shifts towards isolationism and protectionism, globalists will turn to distributed technology as a haven for global commerce. A … Continue reading Is Distributed Tech Important In A World With More Nationalism? The year is 2032, America is holding it's Presidential election and citizens cast their votes using a publicly administered blockchain. They can do this because their digital identity is secured and authenticated by the governments newly adopted system of non-fungible tokens (NFT). In this system, voters receive a unique NFT, minted at their birth, which … Continue reading Non Fungible Tokens: Why You Should Follow Their Progress

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This tutorial gives an overview of the ideas behind Marlowe, as a domain-specific language embedded in Haskell. It also introduces commitments and timeouts, which are central to how Marlowe works in a blockchain context. Programming Languages and Domain-Specific Languages¶ The first computers were programmed in “machine code”. Each kind of system had a different code, and these codes were low-level and inexpressive: programs were long sequences of very simple instructions, incomprehensible to anyone who had not written them. Nowadays we are able to use higher-level languages like C, Java and Haskell to program systems. The same languages can be used on widely different machines, and the structure of the programs reflects what they do. On blockchain, their equivalents are languages like Plutus, Solidity and Simplicity. These higher-level languages are general purpose – they can be used to solve all sorts of different problems – but the solutions they express are still programs, and they still require programming skills to use them effectively. In contrast, Marlowe is a special purpose or domain-specific language (DSL) that is designed to be usable by someone who is expert in a particular field, rather than requiring programming skills to use it. In the case of Marlowe, the domain is the field of financial contracts. Using a DSL has many advantages beyond its use by non-programmers: We can ensure that certain sorts of bad programs cannot even be written, by designing those possibilities out of the language. By doing this we can aim to avoid some of the unanticipated exploits which have been a problem for existing blockchains. We can also more easily check that programs have the properties that we want: for example, in the case of a Marlowe contract, we can make sure that the contract will never fail to make a payment that it should. Because it is a DSL, we can build special-purpose tools to help people write programs in the language. In the case of Marlowe we can emulate how a contract will behave before it is run for real on the blockchain; this helps us to make sure that the contract we have written is doing what it is intended to. Marlowe in a nutshell¶ Marlowe is modelled on special-purpose financial contract languages popularised in the last decade or so by academics and enterprises such as LexiFi, which provides contract software in the financial sector. In developing Marlowe, we have adapted these languages to work on blockchain. Marlowe is implemented on the Cardano blockchain, but could equally well be implemented on Ethereum or other blockchain platforms; in this respect it is “platform agnostic” just like modern programming languages such as Java and C++. The Marlowe Playground online simulation allows you to experiment with, develop, simulate and analyse Marlowe contracts in your web browser, without having to install any software. Marlowe Run is the client application that allows you to run Marlowe contracts on chain: it is available as a prototype and will presently be running “live” on the Cardano blockchain itself. What does a Marlowe contract look like? It is built by combining a small number of building blocks that describe making a payment, making an observation of something in the “real world”, waiting until a certain condition becomes true, and so on. Timeouts, deposits and commitments¶ Where we differ from non-blockchain approaches is in how we make sure that the contract is followed. This means not only that the instructions of the contract are not disobeyed – “nothing bad happens” – but also that the participants participate and don’t walk away early, leaving money locked up in the contract forever: “good things actually happen”. We do this using timeouts. A contract can ask a participant to make a deposit of some funds, but obviously the contract cannot actually force a participant to make a deposit. Instead, the contract can wait for a period of time for the participant to commit to the contract: when that period of time expires, the contract moves on to follow some alternative instructions. This prevents a participant stopping a contract by not taking part, thus making sure that “things happen”. All the constructs of Marlowe that require user participation – including user deposits and user choices – are protected by timeouts. Because of this, it is easy to see that the commitment made by a participant to a contract is finite: we can predict when the contract will have nothing left to do – when it can be closed. At this point any unspent funds left in the contract are refunded to participants, and the contract stops, or terminates. So, any funds put into the contract by a participant can’t be locked up forever: at this point the commitment effectively ends. What is more, it is easy for us to read off from the contract when it will terminate, we call this the lifetime of the contract: all participants will therefore be able to find out this lifetime before taking part in any contract, In our model, a running contract cannot force a deposit or a choice to happen: all it can do is to request a deposit or choice from a participant. In other words, for these actions it cannot “push”, but it can “pull”. On the other hand, it can make payments automatically, so some aspects of a Marlowe contract can “push” to make some things happen, e.g. ensuring that a payment is made to a participant by constructing an appropriate transaction output. Marlowe in action¶ We are working on a production release of Marlowe on the Cardano blockchain early in 2021. From today, you are able to explore Marlowe for yourself, either by downloading it and using the Haskell implementation directly, or by using the online Marlowe Playground simulation tool; these are both covered in subsequent tutorials. These will also cover the details of Marlowe, introduce a series of examples, look deeper into the tools for Marlowe. We have also worked on developing a set of templates for popular financial instruments taken from the Actus standard, and are able to generate particular contracts from these templates according to the various parameters and options that can be set. Because Marlowe is a DSL we can work out how Marlowe contracts will behave without running them: this means that we can provide valuable diagnostics to potential participants before they commit to a contract, using static analysis. We can also use logic tools to formally prove properties of Marlowe contracts, giving users the highest level of assurance that their contracts behave as intended. Marlowe is based on original, peer reviewed, research conducted by the Marlowe team, initially at the University of Kent supported by a research grant from IOHK, and latterly as an internal engineering team in the company. We are also working jointly with Wyoming Advanced Blockchain R&D Laboratory (WABL) at the University of Wyoming. If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch. Our research work is reported in these published papers. Marlowe: financial contracts on blockchain The paper that introduced the Marlowe language. It is an earlier version, but nevertheless it explains the principles and rationale behind its design and implementation. Marlowe: implementing and analysing financial contracts on blockchain This paper describes the implementation of Marlowe on the Cardano blockchain, and the analysis supported by the Marlowe Playground web-based development and simulation environment. Efficient static analysis of Marlowe contracts This paper explains how we optimised the static analysis explained in the previous paper. Standardized crypto-loans on the Cardano blockchain In this paper we explore a smart contract framework for building standardized crypto-loans using Marlowe, with the ACTUS standard at its core. and in this eprints survey paper. Scripting smart contracts for distributed ledger technology Here we give an overview of the scripting languages used in existing cryptocurrencies. Finding out more¶ The Marlowe Playground an in-browser development, analysis and simulation environment. Marlowe Run the end-user client for downloading and running Marlowe contracts on the Cardano blockchain; currently in prototype. The Marlowe github repository from which you can download Marlowe. The Marlowe Website landing page for all things Marlowe. YouTube playlist: Marlowe: financial contracts on blockchain. A general introduction to Marlowe from October 2020. Some features of the Playground have been updated since then.

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Until relatively recently, the world of private DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) has been divided around a few players that have covered most of the international market. Historically, technologies such as Corda, Quorum or Hyperledger Fabric have been the most widely used in corporate projects. For example, Forbes magazine’s list of the fifty companies that lead in the use of DLTs worldwide indicates this. However, as of the second half of 2019, the launch of a new project within the Hyperledger umbrella called Besu was made public. This is an Ethereum-based technology that enables the development of enterprise-class applications both on the public network and on private or consortium networks. This hybrid approach has allowed Hyperledger Besu to see rapid adoption within the blockchain world. In 2018, the team at Pegasys protocol engineering (part of the American company Consensys) started developing this technology. At that time, the product was called Pantheon and its main objective was to develop an Ethereum client suitable for productive enterprise environments. In February 2019, version 1.0 of the product was launched and a few months later, in August 2019, Pantheon was officially adopted into the Hyperledger ecosystem under the new name Besu. Through this incorporation, a first bridge of collaboration was established between two of the largest blockchain development communities in the world: Ethereum and Hyperledger. Since the beginning of the project, the product has been constantly evolving in relevant aspects such as consensus algorithms, permissions management in the network or privacy at the Ethereum protocol level. In addition to all these already integrated functionalities, the roadmap refers to advances in stability, interoperability and performance, especially taking into account the needs of business applications. What is Hyperledger Besu? Hyperledger Besu is an open-source Ethereum client written in Java under the Apache 2.0 license. It is designed to be used both on the Ethereum core network and for the creation of private business-purpose networks based on the same technology. In addition, it is compatible with Ethereum’s public test networks (Görli, Rinkeby or Ropsten), which are widely used within the Ethereum development community. The implementation of Besu follows the technical specifications of the EEA (Ethereum Enterprise Alliance), an organisation that aims to create open standards within the Ethereum ecosystem, accelerating the adoption of the technology within corporate business processes. In relation to the more technical side of the technology, it is interesting to know the following features of Hyperledger Besu: - Use of different types of consensus algorithms: on the one hand, it is possible to use a Proof of Authority type algorithm for private/consortium networks and on the other hand, it is compatible with the Proof of Work type algorithm currently used by the public Ethereum network, the second most important blockchain worldwide in terms of market capitalisation. - It includes the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), which enables the execution and deployment of Smart Contracts and Dapps (decentralised applications), both on the public network and on private or consortium networks. - In terms of programming, Besu is compatible with the most widely used tools within the Ethereum development community, such as Truffle, Remix or web3j, among others. - Thanks to the Besu client, the Ether cryptocurrency can be mined within the main Ethereum network. - In terms of key management, Besu is compatible with the most popular wallets within the Ethereum community. For example, Metamask, the digital wallet used by more than one million people worldwide. In terms of privacy and network permissioning, it is worth noting that these are two fundamental pillars within Hyperledger Besu. On the one hand, it has the ability to keep transactions secure and private depending on the needs of the business, and on the other hand, it allows different access permissions to be configured only for those nodes or accounts that are allowed. In terms of monitoring, Besu allows you to manage both nodes and the network using third-party tools and has a block explorer that gives customers real-time control of what is happening on the blockchain. From a business point of view, Hyperledger Besu allows you to: - Deploy private or consortium networks, taking advantage of their privacy capabilities, high performance, network access permission settings or incident support. - Deploy a node on the public Ethereum network to provide additional trust and transparency for use cases that need it. It is important to note that a Hyperledger Besu node cannot connect to a public and private network at the same time. That is, if there is a use case that requires it, it would be necessary to have at least one node for each type of network. Ready for business environments? Most business blockchain projects have historically been developed as proofs of concept and have not been able to make the leap to production environments. To a large extent, this is due to the scarcity of companies able to offer support for a product developed with this type of technology. To encourage the use of blockchain in corporate environments, it is essential that there are specialised companies with technical capacity that are capable of guaranteeing the viability of the product in the long term, taking into account essential aspects such as security, performance and availability, which are fundamental for any business process. In this sense, in October 2019 Consensys launched “Pegasys Plus” a commercial distribution of Hyperledger Besu in which 24×7 technical support, training, product updates, patch creation and improvements in aspects such as security, monitoring or efficiency are offered. In this way, companies that want to integrate blockchain into their business processes will find it easier to create 100% productive platforms. Another important aspect to take into account is the adoption of this technology by the largest European and Latin American blockchain consortiums. This point is very important when it comes to understanding the reasons for the rapid growth of the technology: - Within the Spanish blockchain ecosystem, Alastria, an open association of companies that promotes the digital economy through the development of decentralised registry technologies, stands out. At a technical level, they advocate a technology-agnostic platform by promoting different types of networks. For this reason, the so-called “B-network”, deployed by some of its partners and Hyperledger Besu, was born at the beginning of 2020. - In the case of Europe, 29 countries (all EU Member States, Norway and Lichtenstein) and the European Commission have joined forces to create the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). They have been working on it since 2018 and its main objective is the creation of a cross-border network for public administrations, providing the members of the European Union with a DLT network based on several protocols, including Besu, that takes advantage of all the benefits offered by blockchain technology in their public services. - In Latin America, LACCHain, an alliance of companies and institutions, is operating with the aim of developing the blockchain ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among its objectives are the promotion of innovation and the reduction of inequalities thanks to the adoption of blockchain technology. In terms of infrastructure, since 2019 they offer their partners the ability to use a DLT network based on Hyperledger Besu for their business use cases. How do we use Besu at Telefónica? Telefónica has been bringing blockchain to our customers for years through TrustOS: a solution created so that companies can adapt their processes to blockchain easily and simply. It consists of several modules in the form of API (Application Programming Interface) so that companies can implement their certification, traceability or tokenisation use cases quickly and simply. A clear example of what Besu would bring to TrustOS can be found in the certification section. Customers using this module will be able to reliably record information in both private and consortium networks, abstracting from the complexity associated with the technology. Using TrustOS APIs, customers will be able to access networks based on Hyperledger Fabric or Hyperledger Besu in a transparent way, without the need to adapt their developments to each type of network.

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With this Blockchain technology, it is comfortable to build applications where one to more additional parties can reserve transactions instantly without any need for a central authority to confirm that trades are confirmed. Blockchain vs Cryptocurrency: Don’t Stay Confused A number of individuals are just recently explored the world of blockchains. Human beings usually confused blockchains with cryptocurrencies. A few people believe that they are just identical but you can assume that they are not the same item. So, there is a question that arises in mind what is the difference between Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. Here, In this article, you will comprehend every single thing about the difference between Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. Table of contents [Show] Blockchain is a data storage technique that makes it difficult or impossible to manipulate, hack, or cheat the system. A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger (DLT) of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the network of computers that make up the cryptocurrency. With this technology, it is easy to make applications where one to more parties can store transactions directly without any need for a central authority to confirm that trades are confirmed. This is done by the peer-to-peer network where every person has access to a shared ledger where all the transaction is recorded. - A blockchain is a kind of transferred database that varies from a specific database in that way it holds informatic blockchains and holds info in the blocks that are connected with cryptography. - As fresh info arises, it is taken up into a fresh block. Once the block is loaded with information, it is connected with another block via chain which becomes the data chained together in documented order. A bureau of measurement, a store of worth, and a medium of exchange all are parts of cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is assisted presently by the blockchain protocol where it drives, that's why it is called the blockchain’s native currency. - In numerous circumstances, cryptocurrencies are not only utilized to pay exchange fees on the network but also encourage users to hold the cryptocurrency’s network Protected. - Cryptocurrencies generally act as the center of exchange or hold worth. A center of exchange is an asset that is used to receive goods or services. - Digital representations of value, commonly referred to as crypto assets, are made possible by blockchain technology and Cryptography. Their original purpose was to act as a means of value transfer without the involvement of a bank or other reliable third party. Blockchain is a type of database that is utilized for holding data on decentralized networks. A cryptocurrency is a form of the trade like the US dollar. A blockchain can be used for keeping various kinds of information far off cryptocurrency transaction records. All cryptocurrencies carry an economic value. You must have listened of Bitcoin hitting a rise of 65,000 dollars (around 48 lac rupees) or Ether approaching around 4,000 dollars (about 3 lac rupees). A blockchain does not have any economic value. Blockchain technology has benefits far from cryptocurrencies. Blockchain can be used for storing information in moneylending, wellness, supply chain, and retail. Cryptocurrency is virtual money, which can be used for trades, purchasing goods and services, and for investment. The benefit of blockchain is that it is decentralized and distributed which means that all the records that are stored on the blockchain are not controlled by a single entity. however, the information on cryptocurrencies is kept in the blockchain and can be accessed by wallets. If you have a bitcoin wallet then you can trade from anywhere with that person who holds the same currency. Blockchain provides transparency as every transaction on the blockchain can be visual publicly by all the miners or users. In other words, crypto trades are regarded as safe because cryptocurrencies do not indicate the authenticity of the owner of the crypto and make it anonymous although the origin of the transaction can be seen. Blockchain is a type of database that holds information. A cryptocurrency is a form of trade that which information is stored on the blockchain. Blockchain doe not have an economic value. Cryptocurrency carrying an economic value Blockchain can be used for storing information in moneylending, wellness, etc. Cryptocurrency is virtual money that is used for trades, and purchasing goods and services. All records that are stored on the blockchain is not controlled by a single person because It is decentralized over the world. The information on cryptocurrency is kept in the blockchain and can be accessed by wallets. If you have a bitcoin wallet then you can trade from anywhere with that person who holds the same currency. Every transaction on the blockchain is publicly visible by the miners and users so that the blockchain provides transparency Cryptocurrency does not show the authenticity of the owner of the crypto. It is safe and makes it anonymous although the origin of the transaction can be seen. Final Words: Blockchain vs Cryptocurrency So, dudes, this was it. I think you reach the core of the blockchain vs cryptocurrency chaos. At no time distract on this topic. If you have a goal around investing in cryptocurrencies, you should satisfactorily obtain an opinion entirely that matters. In the LBM Blockchain Solutions, there are some awesome articles that would prosper the race of knowledge. Hope you have a great journey ahead!

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One of the biggest assets in any industry, business, or enterprise is information. The information can be structured or unstructured forms in paper documents. The documents often carry sensitive corporate ownership, policies, transactional, employee, decisions, and evaluation information. And since information is a huge business asset, document management becomes a critical yet essential business tool. With many businesses also transforming into the digital world, creating and implementing the necessary document and data management platforms is imperative. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation efforts since more services are happening online. Similarly, it has exposed the loopholes and challenges in most document management systems available. So, how does blockchain technology help in all these? This article answers that in more detail. What is Blockchain? In plain English, Blockchain can be defined as a system of information recording that makes it impossible to alter, hack, or manipulate a system. Technically, it’s a duplicated and distributed digital ledger of transactions in a decentralized network of computer systems on the blockchain. Each block has several transactions, and every new transaction is recorded and added to each participant’s ledger. You can use it to create an effective online documentation system. Obstacles in Document and Records Management Even with the available document management systems, information management still faces some obstacles. They include: Today, the issue of cyberattacks on data is not a matter of if it happens but when it happens. 2020 alone reported 69% higher cases than those recorded in 2019. Not even managed services providers are safe from these attacks. Storage and information sharing need to be in a completely private and confidential environment and have access control. But, having a single point of failure makes centralized databases vulnerable to cyberattacks and data loss. • Data Regulations Compliance In the recent past, there has been a rise in tighter cross-industry regulations. Organizations need to prove to courts or auditors that there has been no intentional data manipulation, logs, or workflows for use by the government, enforcement by a regulatory sector, or e-discovery processes. • Industry Inefficiencies Transaction consolidation through private or individual ledges is prone to errors in addition to being time-consuming. The systems may suffer from slow processing, high costs, and inconsistent or inaccuracy —here are some document management systems examples for managed document services. Entry of Blockchain Technology in Document Management Blockchain technology comes with unique and distinct benefits in the development of enterprise document management systems. The most prominent of the advantages is anonymity. Blockchain allows for transparent, trustworthy transactions where parties don’t need to reveal their identities. There’s also no need to register with any central authority, effectively eliminating the costs of third parties in a transaction. Now to how blockchain helps in document management. Blockchain technology offers the benefits provided by the traditional online document management systems but enhances each feature and quality. Blockchain improves document management in the ways below: Through blockchain document management systems, a business can store documents and data in an immutable form. This ensures that no one can tamper with documents, and every action taken on a document is recorded for transparency and traceability. Document sharing is a normal part of the document cycle, and blockchain eliminates the risk of unauthorized access or data corruption. It provides a reliable and secure way of sharing data across an organization. For a document management system to be effective, tracking is a vital element. With blockchain, any change starting from creating a document, changes, signatures, delivery, or receipt is tracked and verified. Only the relevant parties access a particular document. The lesser people involve in document processing, the lower the chances of errors and data breaches. Access to documents in storage is also limited to the persons allowed, which are also recorded making enhancing transparency in document tracking. • Cost efficiency Blockchain eliminates the need for intermediaries and document management services, significantly reducing business costs. There’s also no need for legal professionals or auditors to verify the accuracy of documents and data. The technology keeps a clean record of every change within the document cycle with no chance of manipulation. Overall, blockchain offers something that traditional document management services can’t. That’s efficiency, transparency, and trust. The Bottom Line Document management is an essential part of business processes. Implementing blockchain-based document management systems can save time, costs while making the process more efficient, reliable, and secure. Besides, it digitizes the entire paper process, ensuring there are no loopholes for document manipulation or alteration. Latest posts by B2BNN Newsdesk (see all) - How to Improve Your Pipeline Strategy - August 16, 2022 - 10 Ways to Increase Revenue for Your Distribution Company - August 16, 2022 - 4 Ways To Ensure Your Company Has A Bright Future - August 15, 2022

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How Kima Controls Liquidity Pools on its Platform Part 2: Trusted Execution Environments We designed the Kima platform with the most advanced security instruments currently available. It stands apart in its design due to using two security mechanisms: Threshold Signatures and Trusted Execution Environments. Our previous article, How Kima Controls Liquidity Pools on its Platform. Part 1: Threshold Signatures, looked at how Threshold Signature Schemes help wardens securely manage asset pools on the Kima platform. In Part 2, we’ll talk about Trusted Execution Environments and how they serve to empower Kima’s Threshold Signatures with additional security capabilities. What is a Trusted Execution Environment? Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) provide hardware-based security that enables storing secrets and secure and verifiable code execution. The critical properties of TEEs are: – Privacy: Data processed inside the TEEs cannot be accessed by external programs, system administrators, or attackers who have physical access to the machines. -Transparency: TEEs can “attest” to the code they are executing. Thus, the output of a TEE can be publicly verified. The most common TEE is Intel SGX which is available on a wide variety of Intel CPUs. Microsoft Azure also supports Intel SGX in its cloud instances. What is an SGX Used for? Intel SGX has been used in the blockchain space to increase user privacy and improve security. On the privacy front, both the Secret Network and Oasis Cipher Paratime use Intel SGX to facilitate private smart contracts on Cosmos-based blockchains. On the security front, the Avalanche Bridge implements a 3-out-of-4 Threshold Signature Scheme inside Intel SGX enclaves. This implementation does not improve the privacy of the bridge. However, it reduces the trust in the anonymous bridge “wardens” by generating and storing each warden’s key share inside an SGX enclave. Using this combination of a TSS and an SGX, the Avalanche Bridge wardens custody over $5.7B worth of assets on the Ethereum blockchain. How Does an SGX Work? To provide transaction privacy in a blockchain using committee-based consensus, each block producer can run its nodes inside an SGX enclave. Using Intel’s attestation feature, every block producer can verify that all the other committee members are running the authorized blockchain client inside an SGX enclave. The enclaves can generate key pair(s) for a public key encryption protocol which allows users to encrypt their transactions before sending them to a node. Upon receiving an encrypted transaction, the transaction can be decrypted and validated inside the SGX enclave. The security of SGX guarantees that even the block producers themselves cannot decrypt the encrypted transactions. How Does Kima Leverage Trusted Executed Environments? Although Intel SGX is very powerful, it is not a panacea. There have been several high-profile attacks against SGX enclaves, and even in the absence of attacks, relying on Intel for security provides an unwanted and unnecessary point of centralization. At Kima, we do not rely on the security of Intel SGX alone to maintain privacy or safeguard assets. Instead, we leverage SGX to complement the security of its system. Kima wardens run the Threshold Signature Scheme inside an SGX enclave. Thus, the TSS key shares are not directly accessible to the wardens or system administrators. In our case, the key shares are held inside SGX enclaves, and the entire multiparty key generation and signing protocols are also run inside the enclaves. This significantly improves the security of the underlying Threshold Signature Scheme. In a t-out-of-n Threshold Signature Scheme, security is maintained as long as no more than t wardens collude to subvert the protocol. When the TSS protocol is run inside SGX, to break security, t + 1 would need first to break the security of SGX and then collude. Thus, by implementing the Threshold Signature Scheme inside an SGX enclave, Kima can significantly boost security with only a negligible loss in performance. Stay up to date with Kima by signing up for our newsletter here.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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Dear Clients and Friends, In the early 1980’s, corporate executives at IBM and AT&T predicted that global demand for personal computers would top 1,000 units and there will only be 2,000 subscribers for wireless phones. The world is a different place now. And yet, we hear echoes from the past where sceptics in our industry say change will come slowly and incrementally, if at all. Healthcare, they claim, is different and it would be difficult to make sweeping changes to the industry quickly. But the reality is different. Not only is change coming quickly, but remarkably, it is being embraced by both practitioners and patients, and reinforced by visionary entrepreneurs determined to shake up the system. One example that can give us a glimpse of the future is the emerging technology of blockchains. This technology has the potential to single handedly squeeze hundreds of billions of dollars of costs out of the system, giving us more reason to hope for an inclusive and affordable healthcare system. Blockchains are essentially an open source distributed data base structure that use state of the art cryptography. The technology allows collaboration and exchange of data among related parties where tracking of all transactions and interactions are highly secured, underpinned with genuine privacy protection; a platform for truth and trust. They are designed to enable disparate systems to exchange data creating connectivity between multiple networks – weaving together systems and networks to provide a distributed database for managing unique digital assets. The exchange of data residing in EHRs seem to be a natural place to start — it’s all about facilitating the move from paper to digital to network clusters and ultimately to a single interoperability “engine”. If providers, payers and patients had access to the same global “spreadsheet”, namely the EHR, imagine the savings that we could drive from this technology. Payers and providers spend $300B annually on administrative functions related to data access and exchange, reconciliation of payments and fraud. Blockchains have the ability to put a serious dent in that spend. And we will undoubtedly see a significant rise in quality of care and patient satisfaction. The good news is that companies are already working on developing a purpose built healthcare blockchain. They are building a specific programmable communication layer that can connect a variety of our data sources to blockchains, facilitating the first steps of adoption. Blockchains give us a real chance, another go to try to save our bloated healthcare system. We don’t like to think of the technology as a disruptor but more as an organic necessity that takes advantage of the emerging trends in disintermediation and democratization of data sharing. If anybody tells you that the use of blockchains in healthcare is a pipe dream, remind them that most predictions about technology adoption have been grossly underestimated. We promise you won’t lose this bet!

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The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Internet Initiative is organising a webinar on Introducing Blockchain, on 29 November, from 20.00 GMT. During the webinar, presentations will be delivered on where blockchain technology sits in the technical landscape; the main elements of blockchain's primary application, Bitcoin; and the blockchain lexicon (e.g. proof of work, smart contracts, public and private blockchains, use case). Participants will be able to ask questions about the application of blockchain to industries and industrial supply chains, and hear about IEEE Blockchain Special Interest Group activities. For more information, visit the event webpage.|full_html

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Blockchain and cryptocurrencies replacing traditional finance are not far away. Being a developer, researcher, or business owner, getting started with cryptocurrency is tedious. Letting your feet wet with cryptocurrency without a proper strategy or analysis might put an end to your crypto journey at the very beginning. This is where the analysis of crypto and blockchain data plays a significant role. Blockpulsar offers you real-time crypto data to assist in transactions or to develop a crypto trading bot, for example. Blockpulsar’s API helps the developers make crypto payment systems with accurate data being fetched, benefiting them in the long run. Blockpulsar is the platform you are looking for that offers various insights, enormous amounts of data for enhanced decision making, and deep market analytics to know every possible detail about the blockchain space. Problems in fetching the Blockchain data Top blockchain protocols in the market have a variety of data structures, integrating which requires the allocation of development resources for individual developers. In some cases, accessing the real-time blockchain data requires setting up a full node server, which escalates the cost of fetching data. Though you set up the node server, there is certain data that cannot be fetched from the node like fee data based on mempool, internal transactions of the blockchain, and balances of addresses. Setting up a server requires additional time for syncing the data and of course manpower. Blockpulsar — The Revolution in Blockchain data To access real-time blockchain data, you don’t need to set up a full node server anymore! You heard us right. Blockpulsar offers ready to use API for sourcing blockchain data to enhance your business or research. Blockpulsar becomes the scalable solution to access real-time blockchain data without any latency. Blockpulsar’s API endpoints are built to handle millions of requests with a response under 100ms. Getting the blockchain statistics, block information, and transaction details for the Bitcoin blockchain is easier than you think. Most of Blockpulsar’s endpoints are free with the API key, given that they require attribution and a link back to Blockpulsar’s site. Blockpulsar — Mission and Vision Blockpulsar welcomes change and always goes in search of innovative ideas that will change the lives of people. Blockpulsar aims to re-conceptualize the issues to discover solutions to blockchain data problems and minimize the complexity associated with fetching real-time data. Blockpulsar puts its mission and customers before anything to deliver the best to the community. The penultimate aim of Blockpulsar is to make one of the most reliable APIs for the community. With the help of Blockpulsar, our users can create an Individual API Client that matches their application needs. They can also request specific blockchain aggregated data based on their business needs. We also provide real-time data access to our users so that they can also analyze with us. Finally, we benefit our community to build scalable applications using our API. Key Features of Blockpulsar 1) Real-time Mempool access Users will never miss a transaction when it becomes publicly available. Mempool data plays a significant role as tens of thousands of transactions are fighting to be mined in the successive blocks. 2) Multi-regional network Users can access Blockchain data with low latency. Blockpulsar’s API endpoints are built to handle millions of requests with a response under 100ms. 3) Monitor Entire Blockchain Users can access Blockchain data at any point. Get access to every unified and raw blockchain data including but not limited to token transfers, blocks, and balances. Blockpulsar’s API syncs the whole data starting from the genesis block to a perfectly indexed database. 4) Up to date system We keep blockchain access up to date. As a business, you can create custom user experiences to distribute updated blockchain information to new audiences by creating an application layer with the help of Blockpulsar’s API. 5) Multiple chains Users can access multiple blockchain networks at any time. Blockpulsar offers unified blockchain data, i.e. the request and the response for fetching data is the same as the blockchain. The users need not exert any additional effort to fetch data from different blockchains. 1) Backtesting the strategies Blockpulsar allows the community members to follow the best in class trading or investing strategies by offering the best possible crypto data to run simulations and backtest their strategies. 2) Deliver the right data If you are a business that offers crypto services or a developer, offer the most accurate data to your customers with Blockpulsar. Blockpulsar offers the updated data on the market for your wallet or portfolio management tool or crypto dashboard. 3) Stand out from the crowd The market is full of competition especially when it comes to cryptocurrency and blockchain. With deep insight into the blockchain data, you can make the right decisions to head on compete with your fellow competitors. 4) Insightful decisions Blockpulsar’s powerful and flexible API allows you to build your own models with the data provided. You can draw insights and make meaningful conclusions with Blockpulsar’s genuine set of data. 5) Easy to integrate Blockpular’s API is simple and it supports all use cases. You need not be a geek or nerd to integrate the API, as our SDK libraries and clean documentation will make integration easy. This guarantees the integrated user experience by ensuring more fluid information delivery to the end-users. Also, the data can be made available to every user at the organization level. Blockpulsar — A closing thought Blockpulsar aims to create an API solution to source Blockchain data and utility functions for all major Cryptocurrencies and public blockchain-based solutions. Our free API comes with rate limitations only, which is suitable for small to medium projects. What’s stopping you from becoming a part of Blockpulsar’s ever-growing community. Get your API Client Now!

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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The block chain is a centralized ledger of all transactions across a peer to peer network. Participants can now confirm the transactions without a central certifying authority. Block chain technology is like the internet in that it has a built-in robustness. By storing blocks of information that are identical across its network, the block chain cannot be controlled by any single entity and has no single point of failure. Bitcoin is the name of the best known cryptocurrency, for which block chain technology was invented it utilizes blockchain to keep up its open record of each and every exchange at any point made with Bitcoin. Block chain isn’t a single technology. Rather it’s an architecture that allows disparate users to make transactions and then creates an unchangeable record of those transactions. Fullestop presents the infographic where you can see about Blockchain Technology and its benefits.

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The blockchain industry has been embracing so many coin projects within the last five years. This is due to the juicy profits that came from investing in crypto coins, and there seems to be a bright future that lies ahead in the world’s economy concerning blockchain. Newer coins such as Siacoin have emerged, which has gained grounds due to its cloud-based features. One breakthrough feature that has helped many crypto investors today is the implementation of cloud-based storage by Siacoin. Though, this might look strange to those who are only hearing about blockchain for the first time. Siacoin has taken action by implementing a decentralized cloud-based storage in its network where people can use it store and even sell storage space to anyone they wish to. Apart from its cloud-based feature, there are other features and benefits of Siacoin. But before we list them, let’s look at how it all started. What is Siacoin? Siacoin was created by a team of crypto experts David Vorick and Luke Champine. Its creation began as early as 2013 during when they are still undergraduates at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Siacoin was launched as a decentralized file storage system where people can rent or sell storage disk in exchange for the coin. This whole idea was used to create a more decentralized system of selling storage disk and to make it more affordable to own cloud storage. Siacoin was able to pool its resources for its launch when the same team created the Nebulous; a blockchain infrastructure. This funding process was used to push Siacoin in making its dream come into reality. Benefits of Siacoin Cryptocurrency Here are some benefits expected with Siacoin; Affordable for everyone Affordability is a crucial aspect when we talk about securing a cloud storage space. When comparing cloud storage in Siacoin and other third-party companies, users will see the necessity of investing in Siacoin network. Siacoin has been able to create an atmosphere of cheap access to cloud storage space to everyone. With as low as 2-4$, you can get 1TB space for the storage of your files. This has made those investing and buying Cloud storage space of up to 30-50$ to have a re-thought to investing in Siacoin. A peer to peer secured network The use of file contracts Smart contract is one of the most desired features in the blockchain industry that most cryptocurrencies are currently adopting. Siacoin adopts a smart contract-type called file contracts. This file contract is an essential feature between two parties entering into an agreement. This contract holds agreement between two individuals who are renting cloud storage and those who are providing it within the Sia network. With the involvement of file contracts, there is the elimination of a third-party system that creates the contract. The creation can be done by individuals, signed, and stored in the Siacoin network in the case of any breach in the contract agreement. An opportunity for corporate organizations Every corporate organisation needs a cloud file storage. This helps with the easy access to files and documents from any part of the world and creates an avenue of hooking large files to the clouds. Organizations can seize this opportunity that Siacoin is bringing into the system. Not only do they provide large storage space, but also a more affordable option when compared to other Cloud base storage. Another opportunity Siacoin brings to the door is the encryption of data on its blockchain network. This encryption helps to provide security for all data thereby preventing it from hackers. An easy platform to access The Siacoin network provides an easy means of access when using its wallet features and transacting in its platform. The network is similar to bitcoin with an even more simplified interface for its users. They use the multisignature system for all transactions making it easy for people to access. In this way, a different individual who has the interest of renting their storage space out or intend buying storage space is provided with simplicity. The use of Reed-Solomon encoding to cater for redundancy One trivial question that went up when Siacoin was launched as an open source is the issue of how convenient it is for users to access stored up files even if multiple hosts go offline. It is true that Siacoin employs the use of the Reed-Solomon encoding to solve this problem of file redundancy. When uploading files in the Sia network, files are split into different pieces on up to 30 different nodes. Users on require ten pieces of the nodes to access their files even if multiple hosts go offline. Mining ability for all Another interesting aspect of investing in the Siacoin network is the ability to mine the coin on its blockchain. This mining process provides an avenue to add blocks and be rewarded for it. Asic is the most efficient mining machine that most miners adopt when mining Siacoin. This machine is more reliable than the GPU mining machine. However, the Siacoin team launched its own Asic device called the Obelisk miner which started taking pre-orders from June 2018. Pre-orders were initially sold for $2,500 and later dropped to $1,500 in subsequent orders. This mining machine is meant to create an efficient way of mining Siacoin by allowing the reduction of power consumption and reducing the time taken when adding blocks on an eco-friendly device.

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Blockchain, smart contracts & decentralized autonomous organisations - Aron Fischer - Monday 9 April 2018 2311 GW Leiden The Future Business Structures project team - a research group within the Business & Liability Research Network (BLRN) - proudly presents an interactive seminar with Aron Fischer, lead researcher of both the Ethereum Foundation's Swarm team, which is responsible for developing a decentralized storage platform, and Colony, a platform for open, blockchain-based organisations which facilitates decentralized collaboration. About the seminar Have you always wanted to learn from, and ask questions to, someone who is at the heart of developments relating to Ethereum and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs)? In this seminar, Aron Fischer introduces you to the idea of a blockchain running arbitrary computer code. He will explain why such code is often called a "smart contract" and discuss with the participants the relationship between smart contracts and legal contracts, addressing the problems with the "code is law" paradigm. He will sketch how this technology allows us to imagine entirely new form of organisations - Decentralised Autonomous Organisations - running on a blockchain based world computer, not controlled by any individual but largely governed by the smart contracts that define them. If time permits, Colony will be explained as a specific example of a new form of collective governance. For law students, this seminar offers a great opportunity to learn from an Ethereum thought leader and an experienced engineer who is able to transition from legal issues to the technological possibilities of the blockchain and back. About the speaker Aron Fischer received his PhD in Mathematics in New York City in 2015, writing about Algebraic Topology. Ever since then he has been working on the Ethereum blockchain both as a member of the Ethereum Foundation and as a member of Colony. He was involved in writing the Colony whitepaper and the Ethereum Swarm "orange papers"; co-designing the structures within the Swarm and Colony networks and providing economic and game-theoretic analysis of the built-in incentive systems. He is a regular speaker at events concerning the future of blockchain and has been involved with academia for a substantial amount of time. Students or colleagues who wish to participate are kindly requested to send a registration e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org. Please include in the e-mail a reference to the education programme you are following (bachelor, master specialty, advanced master, exchange) or the department you are working at.

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There are many issues with governance paradigms used in other blockchain solutions, which lead to unacceptable level of centralization. For instance, EOS network is governed by Constitution and 21 Block Producers, which execute EOS protocol and are elected using dPoS mechanism. But voting thresholds to become elected BPs are low due to absence of quorum requirements, and power is consolidated in the hands of few people with significant token holdings and influence over BP decisions. Political systems, where power is consolidated in the hands of richest, are called plutocracy. In another dPoS network - TRON - situation is even worse, as not only BPs are elected by elite token holders with large stakes, but BPs are allowed to buy votes from token holders, and they spend their mining rewards to attract votes, instead of investments in better service and infrastructure. On the opposite, PoW networks have an issue with consolidation of power in large mining pools, controlling a significant percentage of network’s hashpower and effectively controlling the network itself. Our design goal in Papyrus Network was to construct governance protocol, which is aligned with Proof-of-Authority consensus for network scalability reasons, in a way to maintain greater level of decentralization and incentivize benefit of everyone: token holders, miners (authority nodes) and network customers (application developers and users). To achieve this goal we implemented flexible governance protocol, which somewhat reflects how corporations are managed in the modern world by shareholders and the board of directors. We believe that this is the best construction to be used as the network evolves to stimulate its growth. Papyrus Network User Agreement¶ Papyrus Network User Agreement: This document (PNUA) Chain ID: 32328 BIOS Contract: An Papyrus Network smart contract with a dynamic permissions structure, which defines network governance procedures. User: Any person or organization of persons who maintain(s) direct or indirect ownership of an Papyrus Network address, or property connected to an Papyrus Network address. Ownership: Direct or indirect access to an Papyrus Network address through one or more valid permissions checks. Ownership may be partially shared between Users through the use of multi-signature permissions. Authority Nodes: Users who have created new blocks in Papyrus Network. On-Chain: Any transaction, smart contract, or Ricardian contract which is located within a block that is irreversible and appended to the Papyrus Network. Papyrus Network-based Property: Anything that requires a valid permission in order to directly manipulate, alter, transfer, influence, or otherwise effect on the Papyrus Network Call: To submit an action to the Papyrus Network. Authorizations & Permissions: Permissions are arbitrary names used to define the requirements for a transaction sent on behalf of that permission. Permissions can be assigned for authority over specific contract actions. Article I - User Acknowledgement of Risks If User loses access to their Papyrus Network address on chain_id and has not taken appropriate measures to secure access to their Papyrus Network address by other means, the User acknowledges and agrees that that Papyrus Network address will become inaccessible. Users acknowledge that the User has an adequate understanding of the risks, usage and intricacies of cryptographic tokens and blockchain-based software. The User acknowledges and agrees that the User is using the Papyrus Network at their sole risk. Article II - Consent of the PNUA The nature of the Papyrus Network User Agreement is such that it serves as a description of the current Papyrus Network Mainnet governance functions that are in place. These functions, enforced by code, do not require the consent of Users as these functions are inherent and systemic to the Papyrus Network Mainnet itself. Article III - Governing Documents Current version of PNUA is referred by its SHA256 hash in Papyrus Network BIOS Contract and modifications to the PNUA may be made using BIOS Contract. Article IV - Native Unit of Value The native unit of value on Papyrus Network chain_id shall be the PPR token as defined by Papyrus Network software. Article V - Maintaining the Papyrus Network Papyrus Network code is published in open GitHub repositories and open source developers community is supposed to maintain the active blockchain codebase which includes, but is not limited to, the implementation of all modifications of all features, optimizations, and upgrades: present and future. Article VI - No Fiduciary No User shall have a fiduciary purpose to support the value of the PPR token. No User can authorize anyone to hold assets, borrow, speak, contract on behalf of other Papyrus Network Users or the Papyrus Network chain_id collectively. Papyrus Network shall have no owners, managers, or fiduciaries. Article VII - User Security All items pertaining to personal account security, including but not limited to the safekeeping of private keys, is solely the responsibility of the User to secure. Article VIII - Authority Nodes Limited Liability The User acknowledges and agrees that, to the fullest extent permitted by any applicable law, this disclaimer of liability applies to any and all damages or injury whatsoever caused by or related to risks of, use of, or inability to use, the PPR token or the Papyrus Network under any cause of action whatsoever of any kind in any jurisdiction, including, without limitation, actions for breach of warranty, breach of contract or tort (including negligence) and that Authority Nodes shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, exemplary or consequential damages, including for loss of profits, goodwill or data. New Authority Nodes are elected by existing Authority Nodes. Authority Node candidate can be proposed by any of existing Authority Nodes. After Authority Node candidate is proposed, voting for the Authority Node candidate begins and last 14 days. Any Authority Nodes is able to vote for other Authority Nodes and Authority Node candidates. The following contraints are applied in network BIOS contract: - Authority Node have maximum of 7 votes to be casted for different Authority Nodes - Authority Node can’t cast more than 1 vote for the same Node - Authority Node can cast one vote for itself - Authority Node can withdraw a vote from any node with immediate effect - Withdrawed votes can be casted again only after 14 days vote cooldown period After 14 days of voting for a new candidate Authority Node, decision is made based on received votes. If by the end of voting period candidate received minimum of 3 votes from Authority Nodes AND is not added to the blacklist (see below), than candidate becomes Authority Node. Additional rule to be implemented by upgrading BIOS contract in the near time: If by the end of voting period candidate fits with ALL of the following: - received minimum of 3 votes from Authority Nodes - is not added to the blacklist (see below) - current number of Authorty Nodes < 47 OR there is an Authority Node, which have less received votes than candidate node Than candidate is promoted to Authority Node. If number of Authority Nodes = 47, than simulatneously existing Authority Node with lowest amount of received votes is excluded from Authority Nodes. This logic ensures that maximum number of Authority Nodes is limited with 47. Otherwise, candidate node is rejected and not promoted to Authority Node. Authority Node and candidate for Authority Node can be blacklisted by existing Authority Nodes. To add candidate or Authority Node to the blacklist, any Authority Node can create blacklist proposal and initiate proposal voting. Voting period for blacklist proposal is 5 days, which enables ability of blacklisting for Authority Node candidates before candidate voting period of 14 days ends. Only Authority Nodes can cast votes in the blacklist voting. Each Authority Node can cast 1 vote for the proposal. After 5 days of blacklist proposal voting, proposal is deemed successful, if: - amount of votes for proposal is > 50% of Authority Nodes count Otherwise, proposal is rejected. If proposal is successful, Authority Node or Authority Node candidate is added to the blacklist. Any node inlcuded into the blacklist can’t be Authority Node. Community blacklist to be implemented by upgrading BIOS contract in the near time: Authority Node and candidate for Authority Node can be blacklisted by owners of PPR token stakes. Blacklist formed based on PPR token stake holders voting is called community blacklist. To add candidate or Authority Node to the blacklist, any owner of PPR token stake can create community blacklist proposal and initiate proposal voting by staking minimum amount of PPR tokens towards the proposal (minimum is to be determined). Voting period for community blacklist proposal is 5 days, which enables ability of blacklisting for Authority Node candidates before candidate voting period of 14 days ends. Only owners of PPR token stakes can cast votes in the community blacklist voting. Each owner of PPR token stake can cast vote proportional to their token stake. In case of voting for blacklist proposal stake withdrawal period for stake owner is increased to 5 days starting at the time of voting, so he can never vote twice in the same voting using the same stake. Each vote for community blacklist can be either positive (for) or negative (against). After 5 days of blacklist proposal voting, proposal is deemed successful, if: - amount of positive votes is bigger, than amount of negative votes - total amount of votes is > 10% of total token stake owner votes possible in the network based on existing network-wide amount of token stakes (quorum) If proposal is successful, Authority Node or Authority Node candidate is added to the community blacklist. Any node inlcuded into the community blacklist can’t be Authority Node. Changing BIOS contract parameters¶ BIOS contract refers to Papyrus Network User Agreement using its SHA-256 hash code, linking network operations with the agreement. Parameters such as maximum amount of Authority Nodes or mining rewards are configured in BIOS contract as well. Upon network launch Papyrus have ownership rights on BIOS contract and can override / reconfigure it in case of network issues. In the future Papyrus will surrender ownership of BIOS contract so that no party will be controlling it. To achieve decentralised governance, BIOS contract may be upgraded by supermajority decision of Authority Nodes, which is not objected by voting of the community of token stake owners. Implementation of this voting will be deployed to BIOS contract in the near time. Governance attack considerations¶ Network governance and resistance to attacks is considered sufficient, assuming that >50% of Authority Nodes are controlled by honest owners at all times. When amount of Authority Nodes in the network is between 5 and 47, three or more nodes can collude to include more their allies as nodes into the network with the idea of eventually getting control over 50%+ Authority Nodes and performing network attack. Assuming that honest Nodes represent at least 50% of the Authority Nodes at the moment of attack preparation suspicion, they shall blacklist proposed node candidates to tolerate potential attack. In case of very unlikely situation, where network attack such as double spending is made by attackers, which manged to get control over more than 50% of Authority Nodes, token stake owners together with honest Authority Nodes can make hard fork of the blockchain and use media to distribute incident information and guides on necessary updates for network customers.

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Blockchain is a unique invention: the brainchild of a man or group of men known as Satoshi Nakamoto. But it has since evolved into something more significant, and the big question everyone is asking is: What is Blockchain? By allowing digital data to be distributed but not copied, blockchain technology has created the foundation for a new kind of Internet. Originally developed for digital currency, the technology of the Bitcoin community (Buy Bitcoin) is now finding other potential benefits for the technology. Bitcoin is called “digital gold” and for good reason. So far, the total value of the currency is about 9 billion US dollars. And blockchains can create other types of numerical values. Like the Internet (or your car), you don’t need to know how the blocker is using it. However, the basics of this new technology demonstrate why it is considered revolutionary. Durability and reliability of the blockchain Blockchain technology is similar to the Internet to integrate its strength. By storing identical blocks of information across your network, a blockchain cannot: 1. Has no single point of failure. 2. To be controlled by any individual entity. Bitcoin was invented in 2008. Since then, the Bitcoin blockchain has operated without significant disruption. (So far, all the problems associated with Bitcoin have been caused by hacking or mismanagement, in other words, these problems arise from bad intentions and human error, not from the imperfection of the underlying concepts). The Internet itself is almost 30 years old. This is a record that is good for blockchain technology because it is still developing. Who will use the blockchain? As a web infrastructure, you don’t need to know blockchain to be useful in your life. Finance currently offers the most impactful use cases for technology. For example, international payments. The World Bank estimates that more than $430 billion in remittances were sent in 2015. And now there is a huge demand for development engineers. Blockchain potentially cuts out the number of middlemen for this type of transaction. Personal computing became more accessible to the general public with the invention of the graphical user interface (GUI) that shaped the “desktop”. Also, the most common GUIs designed for Blockchain are named as follows. Wallet apps that people use to buy things with bitcoins and store them in other cryptocurrencies. Online transactions are closely related to identity verification processes. It’s easy to imagine that portability applications will change in the coming years to include other types of identity management.

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P2E games and p2e game development company have turned into an essential topic in the gaming local area after the ubiquity of blockchain. Also, numerous investors and business visionaries are keen on making their play-to-earn games in the wake of knowing the capability of creating gains from such games. In any case, what are P2E games? Why adding blockchain innovation to your play-to-earn game can give improve brings about further develop the gaming experience? We should figure it out exhaustively. What are P2E games? Play-to-earn games will be games in which players earn genuine prizes. The prizes can be cash, tokens, NFTs, and so forth. Players can get rewards given their exhibition in the game. The game permits players to exchange their computerized resources with different players. p2e game development company purposes blockchain innovation to make the games accessible to disperse their selective NFTs and crypto coins among their players. We should comprehend how blockchain helps play-to-earn games to make exceptional rewards and how games disseminate among players through blockchain. How does blockchain work on the play-to-earn gaming experience? Starting from the presentation of blockchain, many games have been delivered on the lookout, getting a superior reaction from players around the world. The majority of the play-to-earn games are for the most part altered adaptations of allowed-to-play games in light of blockchains. Blockchain innovation is allowed-to-play games and grows the amazing chances to make numerous selective advanced resources like NFTs, crypto coins, and so on. Besides, there are many advantages of adding blockchain innovation to play-to-earn games, which are given as follows: - Blockchain offers its decentralized waiter for facilitating games that are economical and more steady than incorporated waiters. - The game can make its prizes in light of NFTs. It is not difficult to make and disperse NFT rewards contrasted with other computerized resources. - Blockchain assists games with appropriating rewards proficiently among their players by sending compensations to the location of players’ crypto wallets. - Earning cash by playing games urges players to invest more energy in games that bring about a better commitment to the game. - The compensated players can exchange those computerized resources with different players and trade for cash. In this way, to make a play-to-earn gaming model, then, at that point, adding blockchain innovation to your games will be great for you. - Understanding the plan of action of p2e game development company will assist with providing you with a superior thought of beginning your own game. The plan of action for play-to-earn games Many games accompany their restrictive NFTs and crypto coins. At the point when players draw in or complete any undertaking inside the game, the game offers their crypto coins or NFTs as a prize to the players. The games which are allowed to play use blockchain innovation to make their remarkable NFTs. The games can appropriate these NFTs among their clients as remunerations. The players join the game through advanced stages that the game backs. The players can earn rewards by finishing the designated accomplishment by playing play-to-earn games. In addition, the players can stake NFTs to receive more NFTs consequently. Later the players can offer that advanced resource to different players in return for cash. The game purposes shrewd agreements which execute the prize framework on specific circumstances for conveying computerized resources for its players. Nonetheless, there are many factors that you should consider before making play-to-earn games. Significant factors for the P2E games. These are a few fundamental factors to assist you with making a superior methodology and plan for your game from its development to its send-off. The factor will conclude how engaging your game is to draw in a huge crowd. Focusing on and checking the socioeconomics of your gaming crowd at the hour of game development decides the possibility to create gains from your game. These actions how likely the clients will spend and buy the items inside your game. Making your game more monetizable by offering different computerized resources assists with getting more cash for game proprietors. 3 Stamping Power The factor estimates how much your game can charge for each given NFT from the players. The better the capability of charging NFTs, the more benefit the company can create. 4. Financial Sustainability The economy decides the earning potential that clients can bring in cash from your game. More noteworthy monetary supportability assists you with drawing in additional players to your game. 5. Seen Longevity Life span decides how long players will remain in your game. Having a greater life span of the players on the game will assist gaming proprietors to keep a critical client base on their game. Maintenance computes how long a player will spend on the game. Additionally, maintenance decides how habitually the players will get back to the game. A higher standard for dependability helps the game proprietor make their gaming local area greater and more productive. You can look at the motivations to put resources into play-to-earn games, which will provide you with a superior thought of how much returns you can get on your speculation.

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While time marches on and makes tremendous progress in every aspect of people’s lives, the blockchain craze is sweeping the whole world. As a new technology that’s believed to trigger a new round of technological and industrial revolution, blockchain finds its value not just in cryptocurrency, but in its increasingly stronger impact on finance and technology, in its potential to reshape the world and even in its prospect of transforming the information-providing internet to the value-creating internet, from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. The core advantage of blockchain lies in decentralization and its deployment of all sorts of technologies, including encryption, timestamp, and distributed consensus, to build a new trust mechanism and an efficient coordination mechanism which will, in turn, breed a multitude of new use cases of blockchain. With the landing of this technology constantly promoted, blockchain has seen a diversification of use cases and shown the tendency of close integration with other industries. Mighty, born to be the solution. Adhering to its great vision, Mighty positions itself as a versatile tool combining the functions of social software, payment platform, decentralized wallet, and service provider platform, dedicated to the smooth application of blockchain. It aims to provide services such as social connection and crypto-based international payment and business assistance to users from different countries and regions, enrich the use case of blockchain and digital currency, promote the development of commerce and society as a whole. Blockchain does not subvert the internet, nonetheless, copying the existing product model of the internet blindly would not bring real innovation to blockchain technology. Ever since its inception, the internet has been plaguing its users with privacy breaches and data leakage. In 2018, Facebook’s massive data leak was brought to light and a British company reportedly collected personal information from as many as 87 million users without authorization. On 10 November the next year, NBC News released 7,000 pages of Facebook’s classified documents, revealing how the social media giant consolidated its dominant position by tracking Android users’ privacy and using data as a bargaining chip. Another scandal was exposed on 11 April 2021 where Clubhouse, an invitation-only social media app that went viral in America, caused a data leakage involving more than 1.3 million users. Mighty is committed to protecting users’ privacy to the greatest possible extent, freeing communicators from the risk of wiretapping and leak. In the near future, Mighty makes it possible for tens of thousands of people to chat online through its public group while enables thousands of users to have real-time video & voice calls, with incognito mode adding a sense of mystery to the community. Among its efforts to support business payment and build a platform for service providers, Mighty also binds business accounts with personal ones and realizes instant money transfer. Besides, by integrating the platform’s API with that of the vendors, Mighty provides value-adding services like transaction registering for both online and offline businesses. With the help of Mighty’s social network, businessmen can have access to customers worldwide. The application of “blockchain plus” in various industries is certainly the trend in the development of the technology, while the landing of these projects will lay the foundations of mass adoption of blockchain. Mighty has faith that in the not-too-distant future, Mighty Pay can facilitate cross-border transactions for international students or businessmen by settling crypto transactions for instant consumption and withdrawal on the receiver’s side. When traveling abroad, people may use Mighty Pay as a tool for foreign currency payment and withdrawal and, in the case of eCommerce shopping where the order is settled in foreign currency, simply linking their Mighty accounts to the corresponding eCommerce site would complete the payment in digital currency. “History never repeats itself but it rhymes,” said Mark Twain. The Industrial Revolution is the only great thing throughout the evolution of the human species in the past ten thousand years. Each time it leads people to a brand new, promising era where many new emerging giants appear. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, featured by Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Internet of Thing, robotics, and blockchain, is knocking the door, and the “blockchain plus” field, where Mighty exists, is bound to take this opportunity of time and witness the rising of its giant.

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In an experiment that stretches from farm to frosty glass, a small brewery in Belmont, California, has added blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to its production process. Applying cutting-edge tech to the ancient art of beer-making is helping Alpha Acid Brewing Company develop new blends, ensure a high-quality product, and enhance relationships with suppliers and customers. The project is also providing a tangible demonstration of the potential blockchain and IoT have for other businesses. Blockchain—a digital ledger technology that lets participants add and view blocks of transaction records, but not delete or change them without being detected—is expected to play a big role in supply chain management. In the case of food (including beer) supply chains, blockchains provide a trusted way for participants, some of which may not know each other, to track the raw ingredients that go into the final product. That can provide a far easier way to pinpoint the source of salmonella outbreaks, for example, or to know that the tasty Alpha Acid beer you’re drinking is made from local, organic ingredients that were put to use by the brewer shortly after harvest. Alpha Acid’s suppliers of hops, malt, and yeast are set up on Oracle Blockchain Cloud Service, where they can sign off on details of each stage in the raw materials’ upstream process, from date of harvest to weather conditions to the malting of the barley. Fresh ingredients are key to making good beer, says Kyle Bozicevic, owner of Alpha Acid Brewing. With the detailed tracking that blockchain provides, both Alpha Acid and its customers (who can use the QR code on the brewery’s menu or on its limited-distribution cans) know exactly how fresh each ingredient is. - Try Alpha Acid Brewing Company’s #blockchainbeer at the Oracle Code One conference, to be held October 22 to 25 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. IPAs—one of Alpha Acid’s specialties—should be consumed within 30 days of brewing, so blockchain provides far more precise information than the standard “Best by this date” stamp on most beer cans, Bozicevic says. As a brewer, he adds, “If I only have limited information about the ingredients I put into my beer, then I’m just guessing.” Most of the time, Bozicevic says, “consumers are lucky to just have information on the variety of hops that went into their beer. They definitely wouldn’t know what farm those hops are coming from, when they were picked, or anything like that. So that makes blockchain a great opportunity for suppliers of high-quality ingredients to become better known to consumers.” One of Alpha Acid’s suppliers is Gigayeast, which provides the microbes that turn sugary water and protein into alcohol during the fermentation process. “Blockchain technology follows a trend in American consumerism where you want to know where everything comes from,” notes Jim Withee, Gigayeast’s founder, CEO, and chief scientist. “If you want pure craft beer made in America from small suppliers, blockchain can help you verify that.” The Alpha Acid fermentation tanks where Gigayeast’s microbes work their magic now sport IoT sensors—installed by Oracle partner Revolvr—that let Bozicevic and his team monitor the temperature and pressure during this critical phase. Because fermentation generates substantial heat, monitoring the temperature is critical. Too hot, and the beer’s flavor goes south. Bozicevic and his team can monitor those sensors in the brewery as well as remotely on their phones through Oracle IoT Cloud Service, enabling them to carefully control the synthesis of yeast to achieve the fruity, buttery, spicy, or perhaps smoky flavor they’re after. And because Alpha Acid customers can log on to the brewery’s Oracle-developed app to provide feedback on the various new beers the brewery produces each week, the company can see which combinations are scored favorably—and refine from there. IoT and Blockchain Possibilities The Alpha Acid story shows that even small businesses have much to gain by tapping IoT and blockchain technology. Applications can help companies of all sizes not only improve their products, but also quickly analyze the root causes of failures—from tainted food products to faulty air bags in cars. “Today, it’s your word against mine when something goes wrong,” says Atul Mahamuni, Oracle vice president of IoT. “In the future, if the temperature on one of the trucks used to transport a raw material is too high and that affects the quality of the material, that temperature data will be automatically recorded by IoT sensors and entered into the blockchain. There will be no need to spend lots of time and resources figuring out what happened. This will be among the many ways that these technologies will change the relationship between businesses and their suppliers.” Companies that supply materials to multiple businesses and don’t want their competitors to have visibility into their data on a blockchain will be able to control who can see that data, Mahamuni notes. Additionally, they control who within their own organization can modify that data, and those changes are recorded and visible. For now, Alpha Acid and its suppliers offer a glimpse into how the combination of blockchain and IoT can benefit businesses throughout a supply chain and improve the final product.

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As we all know, blockchain is one of the hottest topics at the moment. And one of the features of blockchain and other distributed ledger architectures is, even without a central authority, the ability to have your transactions never forgotten. Ironically, another powerful global trend is increased regulation and concerns about privacy, including the right to be forgotten. It seems like one potential future is a future where organizations don’t aim to build up and keep big databases about their customers and other stakeholders, but instead allow their customers to have sovereignty of their own data, have a trusted relationship with them, and just ask the customer’s data agent for the minimum amount of data when they need it, and keep it for as short amount of time as possible. So, for example, I don’t need to keep your date of birth on file, or even know it temporarily, if I have a trusted way of asking you reliably “Are you over 21?”. A sort of minimum viable data approach. If we extend this to an ecosystem, rather than a one-on-one supplier-customer relationship, we could imagine new paradigms that were kind of similar to blockchain, but designed to achieve the opposite effect; designed to allow information to be help in a distributed fashion, but to ensure that information disappeared completely from the ecosystem in a specific amount of time. Maybe using stuff like distributed ledger technology + zero knowledge computing or suchlike. In my head, I wanted to call such things dropchains, but a scan of the internet revealed that dropchain is a already taken (a food supply chain blockchain project). So, perhaps we could call such architectures anti-blockchains for now. Just like many blockchain-based projects, there will be many situations where this can be achieved without any of the fancy distributed ledger technology, but some might benefit from it. I wonder if and when we will we start hearing about anti-blockchains?

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Legislators in Australia want to regulate Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). In this three-part series, Oleksii Konashevych discusses the risks of suppressing the emerging phenomenon of DAOs and possible solutions. Crypto anarchy is unlikely to be the future that the majority of people support. In essence, business regulation has many positive aspects, or at least good intentions, albeit often embodied in a bureaucracy that stifles business. However, business rules and regulations are now formalized enough to be plugged into machine code. So the government’s role is to set mandatory standards for those DAOs that wish to operate in the Australian market. There are cases where a written legal text is required. These are situations where the legal interaction goes beyond the program code and requires integration into the real world. In this case, there must be formal legal documents and a liable person responsible for making business promises to consumers and investors. There can be two types of events in a blockchain network: 1. Internal. For example, transferring a token in exchange for a cryptocurrency payment. It can be fully automated as both elements – the token and the cryptocurrency – are internal digital elements of the system. 2. External. But when something is off-network, it requires human interaction and interaction with the real world. For example, if a businessman issues tokens tied to a flock of sheep, that legal condition must be written somewhere in human language, since sheep are not digital objects and the legal condition is not part of the network. Therefore, investors’ digital rights (let’s call it that) can and should be automated in a DAO. Therefore, they do not require written legal conditions. Non-digital rights and obligations must be mediated by a responsible person and described in a legal document. And I would say that many DAOs will have both: the digital on-chain part and the off-chain part. Related: DAO Regulation in Australia: Problems and Solutions, Part 1 Let me show you an example. Suppose it is promised that token investors can vote and the voting is done electronically on the blockchain and the smart contract automatically executes the decision in a decentralized manner. In this case, no human assistance is required and no formalized legal document is required. This does not mean that it is not described in human language. This means that the description does not override the machine code on the blockchain. As a legislator, I would enact rules that would reduce the opportunities for misinforming DAO investors. A businessman may not promise anything to DAO investors that is not encoded in the smart contract. This must be interpreted as a deception. When the digital world touches reality and cannot act autonomously, all of these cases require full, legally binding disclosure. There is a common misconception regarding the issue of immutability. In a blockchain, you cannot subsequently change existing transactions and the provided code of a smart contract. That’s right, but you don’t have to. The system must be properly designed. Instead of changing the existing records, you need to be able to add new records. All transactions are strictly chronological (because nobody can change the order of the blocks). So when legal circumstances change, don’t change the past, add a new record to your application. And in the order of records, only the most recent will reflect the current state of affairs. This allows you to resolve litigation and correct mere mistakes. And how to properly arrange legal relationships, I explained in the following video. In my research papers, as well as in this video, I have also described the problem of an “emergency brake” – the need to reset the system when something goes wrong. The proposed technical standard will allow redesign of an application on blockchain and will introduce new rules for a DAO. Related: DAO Regulation in Australia: Problems and Solutions, Part 2 A sustainable DAO solution must rely to some extent on third parties for governance and day-to-day operations. And there are many situations where we undeniably need a trusted third party. For example, how does a person transfer an inheritance after death? You are not going to develop a mature application on a blockchain, the question is how to hold intermediaries accountable, be it a government registrar or an authorized professional (lawyer, administrator, broker, etc.). Their operation requires regulations and technical standards. I should note one important thing. Transactions with cryptocurrency as a native unit of a blockchain are immutable and there is nothing you can do about it. This isn’t addressable, or at least not that easily without breaking the technology. Everything I said about the right design revolves around crypto tokens, smart contracts, DApps and DAOs that are on top of a cryptocurrency. To enter the age of the digital economy, governments need to rethink their role and approaches to regulation. The DAO portrays the struggle for a fundamental shift from old-fashioned bureaucracy and bureaucracy to automated procedures facilitated by smart laws and smart contracts, commonly known as the Code is Law paradigm. Such a shift requires questioning established institutions: the role of public registers, licensing and other avenues of conventional regulation. Some countries have already entered the race to regulate innovation and good intentions are not enough as they end up with bureaucracy, which is one of the reasons DAOs came into existence in the first place. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph. Oleksiy Konashevich has a PhD in law, science and technology and is CEO of the Australian Institute for Digital Transformation. In his scientific work, he presented a concept for a new generation of land registries based on a blockchain. He pitched an idea of Title Token and backed it with technical protocols for smart law and digital government to enable full-featured legal governance of digitized property rights. He has also developed a cross-chain protocol that enables the use of multiple ledgers for a blockchain probate registry, which he submitted to the Australian Senate in 2021. https://cointelegraph.com/news/dao-regulation-in-australia-issues-and-solutions-part-3 Problems and Solutions, Part 3

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You can also read this post in dev.to Internet Computer (ICP) describes itself as: The Internet Computer is the fastest and most scalable general-purpose blockchain. It extends the Internet with computation: dapps (smart contracts) can run 100% on the Internet Computer as it can serve web contents directly into browsers. You can learn more in Dfinity Website. The team behind Dfinity made this nice ICP Explorer that shows the current state of the ICP blockchain, consensus and nodes, among other things. For comparison, Bitcoin has 14814 according to coin.dance, Ethereum 4844 according to ethernodes, and Solana 1713 according to Solana Beach. Obviously, these 3 blockchain-based networks work really different, are older and have a bigger community and development. If we take the smallest network in terms of nodes counts, Solana (1713 nodes), you might think that 443 nodes is not that bad, maybe, but it must also be said that all these nodes are controlled by 53 entities (also called Node providers) according to the ICP explorer. Of course the other blockhains nodes aren't all independent neither, but by looking at the number of total nodes, it's clear that they are higher decentralized in terms of node distribution. The other blockchains are older and have more development but it's not an excuse if you want to scalate to millions and millions of users. There is also this interesting detail, if we hover over one of the blue circles in the map of the ICP explorer, it displays some information about that particular provider, we can see in what Datacenters it's nodes are located. Turns out all of the ICP (according to this map) are running in Datacenters distributed across the world. This doesn't look like the other blockchains where running self-hosted nodes or using another type of cloud provider is more common. Compared to other blockchains, you are not allowed to run your own ICP Node without the permission of the ICA (Internet Computer Association). You can verify this yourself by going to ICP Website and click on the menu "Run a Node", that will lead you to this form, you will see this message: If you are still curious, you can press on "Continue". Now they ask for your email, then your first name and finally your last name. Definitely very strange, other blockchains are more privacy-friendly since they allow you to run your node however you want. Is a Network where only a centralized authority is allowed to decide who, how, where can run a node? Doesn't look like so to me! You can also see ICO of Internet Computer. Wait! What do you think? You can leave a comment if you are reading this from dev.to The author of this post does not own any ICP.

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What is blockchain? “Blockchain is a digital method of economic transaction record-keeping -- also known as a ledger. What differentiates it is its security. While blockchain records can be openly viewed by everyone within a given network, no one can edit or delete existing records.” An easy way to think of it is how Google Docs work. If your team has a document that needs to be edited by other team members, instead of waiting around for each person to update then send a new copy - Google Docs allows your whole team to have access to one document. You can see live updates, and multiple people can be working on it at one time. You can also see where changes have been made, and even go back to see the original document. Another example that is a little more integrated - think about when you buy a house. There are documents you have to get sorted (title registration, mortgage lenders, inspections, legal fees …) with many different people involved. With blockchain, the complexity of this sale is made simpler. You can record property data and build smart contracts to automatically transfer a document (or money for purchase) once it is filled out, ultimately speeding the process up without losing the confidentiality of the sale. “Blockchain is a method of digital record-keeping that creates a ledger of transactions that is transparent and impossible to tamper with.” How is blockchain influencing digital marketing? Most of the buzz involving blockchain has been around bitcoin and banking and financial transactions. More importantly to us as digital marketers, what are the implications of this secure way of handling information to the marketing world? There’s significant potential for marketers of any industry to be affected, let’s take a look: Data Collection and Data Privacy It’s no secret that digital marketers rely on the information that is collected from ISP’s and web browsers - from consumer insights to the way we target well, everything. But consumers are becoming more and more worried about their privacy online - specifically who has access to their information. Networks like Blocktack and Skycoin are aiming to decentralise the internet and make all user data encrypted and protected. Imagine the impact it would have if us marketers didn’t have access to the mass amounts of user data we have now. Blockchain even has the potential to let customers individually decide which content and ads they want to see. We will have to fill in the gaps of information from customers and prospects, and target audiences via things they are specifically looking for (if you aren’t already, that is!). Digital Display Ad’s “Brave and BAT, which is powered by blockchain technology, are aiming to break up the current monopoly on digital ads by allowing users, publishers, and advertisers to trade on the value of online attention.” Here’s how it works - Advertisers buy ads using BAT - Can be private tabs, push notifications, or landing pages. Fewer, but higher quality ads is the aim. - BAT compensates users who opt into viewing ads - By opting into ads, consumers get to decide what they see and are paid a portion of the advertisers spend. This will provide more accurate information to advertisers anonymously. - Publishers are compensated by consumers and advertisers - publishers will receive a larger portion of ad spend than consumers and can charge BAT for access to different content. It’s a win-win for all parties included. Consumers have a choice and will see higher quality ads related to their interests, marketers get better ad performance and targeting, and publishers get more revenue and control over what they display. All without giving out any personal information, thanks to blockchain. Even the entertainment world is being touched by blockchain technology. At the moment, artists are sharing their music via streaming applications like Apple Music and Spotify. Which isn’t the best method for the artist, as they are being paid a fraction of the streams. Blockchain technology could allow for artists to share their music directly to their own community, called an Initial Artist Offering (IAO). They would create and sell a type of crypto token, and once you sold enough you can offer them special releases, live videos, in exchange for a token. The more popular you get, the more valuable a token will be. This would allow artists to market themselves directly, rather than going through platforms where they lose revenue and control of their work. This would shift entertainment marketing more towards P2P (C2C) since fans could now make the transactions themselves. Is this reality? These, of course, are mostly scenarios of what could happen, although many are still under development. While we can’t be sure what will happen with blockchain, it’s important to note that it could drastically change the way marketers attract the buyer’s attention. Like this article? Share with your colleagues and let them know about blockchain!

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Blockchain and How It Could Help with Microgrid Transactions January 17, 2018 January 17, 2018 The Blockchain has allowed cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to flourish without the need for banks or governments. Ensuring of instant payment on delivery of goods and services agreed to in immutable smart contracts. However, the technology is developing beyond the digital currency phase. The evolution of the energy market is one of the most exciting to date. The world’s energy demand is forecast to increase over the next decade, the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) adds additional constraints, however, also help balance the grid through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging. Traditional utilities are no longer the sole providers of energy, the increase in renewable technologies such as solar and battery storage incentivize the development of microgrids. While start-ups are working alongside Blockchain to create new business models that utilize surplus energy generation. What is Blockchain? The Blockchain is a method of recording data – a distributed digital ledger of transactions, agreements, contracts – anything that needs to be independently recorded and verified. The ledger maintains an audit trail of permanent records, called ‘blocks.’ By design, Blockchain technology is decentralized. Decentralization means the network operates on a peer-to-peer basis. By creating a new way of verifying transactions, traditional methods could become obsolete. A more complex grid World energy demand is set to increase by 28% by 2040, with the majority of the growth occurring outside the OECD countries, namely China and India. The introduction of electric vehicles (EV) could add 18GW to peak demand by 2050. Furthermore, EV Charging from the same transformer known as clustered charging can result in outages and added costs. On the other hand, V2G charging transforms an EV into a power source. Excess battery capacity can be used to avoid peak electricity tariffs. Electric Nation in the UK is already trialling this concept to help balance local electricity networks. Solar power was the fastest-growing source of new energy worldwide last year, according to the International Energy Agency. Consumers, corporations, and start-ups are investing in solar and battery storage, facilitating the path toward decentralization. Deployment of solar incentivizes the formation of microgrids. A connected energy system that allows you to power your home or business with solar, offsetting peak periods of usage, while still being connected to the grid. Any surplus energy generation with the power of Blockchain becomes a secure tradable asset. Power Ledger is in the process of developing a platform where the consumer can trade electricity with one another and receive payment in real-time from an automated and trustless reconciliation and settlement system. Similarly, deX, backed by the Australian Government, is in the initial stages of rolling out the deX exchange in the Mornington Peninsula. The initiative aims to support households and businesses in taking up renewable technologies and help reduce peak demand over summer. Localised microgrids empower consumers to generate, consume and trade self-generated energy. It seeks to optimise value for all parties and allow centralized grids to integrate renewables and manage the reliability and stability. This is key to creating value for energy customers in the grid of the future. Extensions of Blockchain Smart Assets – In the context of peer-to-peer systems, “smart assets” are unique virtual tokens of ownership that can be controlled or exchanged using smart contracts. The smart asset can be a virtual representation of ownership, such as a house or car. Speaking of cars, Decentralised Autonomous Vehicles (DAV) have set their sights on allowing autonomous vehicle owners to exchange their vehicles in a decentralized marketplace using the digital currency DAV. Distributed Cloud Storage – Current cloud services are centralized. Thus, you place trust in a single storage provider. With Blockchain this can become decentralized. Storj is testing their encrypted cloud storage platform, with improved security and decreased dependence. Also, users can trade excess storage capacity in a new marketplace. Digital Voting – By casting votes as transactions, Blockchain creates a record for each vote. This way, everyone can agree on the final count because they can count the ballots themselves, and because of the Blockchain audit trail, they can verify that no votes were changed or removed, and no illegal votes were added. To improve voting across the United States, The Free and Equal Elections Foundation is working tightly together with Blockchain voting company, Follow My Vote. Today, we still rely heavily on centralized intermediaries to establish trust and coordinate capacity. This creates an opportunity for Blockchain to revolution the way we think. In the next decade, hundreds of devices will come online and be integrated into our daily lives, doing everything from monitoring our health and managing our affairs to generating power and selling it. Banks won’t be used to purchase solar energy; devices will. These devices need a way to transmit sensitive data securely to peers; Blockchain will more than likely be the answer.

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Last week noticed the Blockchain Developers Summit in Nigeria that loved over 1,500 attendees made up of builders, entrepreneurs, startups and tech fans. Also in attendance had been a delegation from Nigeria’s Economic Ministry – Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta (National Director, National Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics) (NCAIR) and Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi (Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). An worldwide delegation that represented the BSV Blockchain included Dr. Maximilian Sinan Korkmaz, Founder of My2Cents, Michał Scisłowski, CEO and Founder of Soundoshi, and Lorien Gamaroff, Co-Founder & CEO of Centbee. Most notably each My2Cents and Centbee noticed a robust uptake in visitors and downloads on the night of the occasion. In the case of My2Cents the visitors will increase have continued at an astonishing price with a big proportion of that visitors coming from Nigeria as may be seen beneath: How My2Cents works: Users pay a fraction of a cent to submit after which different customers pay equally small quantities to like, remark and re-purpose the content material. The BSV chain as an entire is processing over 1,000,000 transactions every day: https://bsvdata.com/applications About the BSV Blockchain Association BSV is the best blockchain for enterprise and authorities initiatives. With unbounded on-chain scaling, the BSV blockchain meets the wants of large-scale technology functions: excessive transaction volumes, quick velocity, predictable low charges, micropayment capabilities, and higher knowledge capability. Its highly effective technical capabilities allow good contracts, tokenization, IoT gadget administration, computation and extra. As a public ledger, BSV additionally permits transparency, auditability and extra honesty for governments, residents, and enterprises. Applications on BSV now span a wide selection of trade sectors – media & leisure, social media, on-line video games, Metaverse/AR/VR, digital promoting, knowledge integrity, ID administration, authorities providers, provide chain, accounting, RegTech, distributed community intelligence, Internet of Things, and monetary providers. BSV additionally helps an environment-friendly and regulation-compliant blockchain ecosystem that enterprises and governments need. New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeek’s Bitcoin for Beginners part, the final word useful resource information to study extra about Bitcoin—as initially envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto—and blockchain.

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Blockchain Technology is a information infrastructure that is presently the backbone of a brand new type of internet that draws the web business community. Blockchain is an encrypted and decentralized ledger that’s designed to report all financial and electronic transactions that has a value. That platform is used by Bitcoin, a decentralized, peer-to-peer system that has an electronic digital currency known as crypto currency applied to fund things and services. Bitcoin allows online customers to process funds between events through the change of Bitcoins that can be bought with national income currencies or could be minted through arithmetic, algorithms and cryptography. The blockchain can be used to record all of these on line transactions. The blockchain is similar to a distributed database wherever spreadsheets of all economic transactions are copied across its network with tens and thousands of computers. These sites were created in such a way which they quickly update regularly. The records and transactions within the system are community available to anyone on the web and quickly verifiable. The benefit of having a blockchain technology is that there surely is no centralized variation of the replicated spreadsheets. It is totally automatic without individual decision-making involved. Furthermore, it gives the benefit of eliminating an intermediary, such as bank, suppliers or brokers in any kind of financial transactions. Advantages of Blockchain Applications: Due to its cryptography foundation, it is guaranteed that no malware, hacks, illegal company techniques or phishing attacks can occur. With the Dora token security and immutable plan that’s spread and duplicated across multiple sites, it has the immense possible to avoid a hacker from corrupting the data in any way possible. Utilizing the blockchain technology within financial business has highly impacted the record-maintaining database systems. It has the capability to help self-enforcing, intelligent agreements that includes set conditional clauses for the participants. The transactions will undoubtedly be effective, and the funds will soon be transferred just once the problems within the clauses have already been met. Such contracts are still being executed and performed into decentralized tools for crowdsourcing and voting where in fact the email address details are absolutely transparent and publicly accessible. What Blockchain Keeps for the Potential? The utilization of blockchain technology has got the potential to revolutionize the area of law. Through the usage of wise agreements, blockchain engineering has the ability to have the clever contracts and the blockchain wills to get immediate influence following a person dies. The executor and intermediary could no further be needed to carry out the wills. This blockchain engineering prefer to need a attorney who has qualified skills of a computer programmer. Also, this engineering could be beneficial for vehicle hire agencies. With the utilization of wise agreements, the agencies can quickly allow vehicle rentals after the consumers’funds and insurance data have now been approved. That system may potentially help the web audio industry. Artists frequently generate on income because of producing in organizations or third-party platforms. Blockchain could be used to get rid of the intermediaries and supply the artist with more get a handle on and possession of the audio which leads to maintaining the big percentage of sales that the musicians originally lost. Blockchain program can also modify sales on the basis of the means of the confirmation of an organization’s audit. Alternatively of experiencing a firm hold split records of transactions blockchain engineering can keep all transactions in to a joint register. This can produce a process wherever all transactions are covered in to an interlocking system wherever changing the transactions, fraud or ruining them won’t be possible. Additionally, blockchain engineering has got the possible to change the advertising and marketing industry. Firstly, it will eliminate the intermediaries in digital advertising and promotion creating charge performance and visibility for organizations. With the transparency, it will undoubtedly be simpler for marketers and advertisers to recognize the right goal markets. The marketers will no longer maintain need to find customer information through different sources. All data is going to be quickly found in the blockchain.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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Blockchain technology should be understood more as a public database accessible via a digital network that can monitor, record, and authorize transactions. This technology decreases the requirement for a financial institution and middleman since everyone can access the transactions in the ledger at any time. Let’s discover 3 key uses of blockchain that is not associated with bitcoin. How are Bitcoin and blockchain unique? Bitcoin is a kind of unregulated computerized money that was first made by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Otherwise called “cryptographic money,” it was dispatched with the goal to sidestep government cash controls and improve online exchanges by disposing of outsider installment handling mediators. Obviously, achieving this necessary something other than the actual cash. There must be a safe method to make exchanges with digital currency. Blockchain, in the beginning, was developed as a payment system and its potential applications are limitless. Today, blockchain can be deployed for everything from the legal sharing of music online to making land registrations. The following are some common examples of blockchain that is completely from global finance but has more to do with other core functions of a business operation- - Storage on the cloud – With cloud storage online, the data resides on a centralized server that delivers the web content when users click on your page. The use of the cloud helps in the buffering of data. A network that focuses on content delivery eases the above situation. Such a system reduces or even mitigates buffering because global servers across the globe have the replica of the data. Upon request, the closest copy can be sent to you directly. While the present services related to cloud storage are centralized, blockchain technology can decentralize them. Take the example of Storj that has developed a blockchain network for cloud storage, and so it is entrusted with encryption that is strong and heavy. This permits businesses to store objects in the cloud for getting better delivery and security. Businesses can even rent out any surplus storage they might have. - Processing power – When you mine cryptocurrencies, for example, bitcoin, they keep their computers in a network that joins with one another to complete complex calculations. The Golem Project embraces another approach besides creating currency optimizing mining power for providing large computing power for tasks like graphic rendering, machine learning, analysis of big data, science computations, and cryptography. When the blockchain is harnessed, millions of machines that generally are idle for most of the time are used for meeting the increasing need of businesses for computing resources both efficiently and economically with the present computing power that would otherwise have been redundant. Organizations with requirements for additional processing power over what their present systems provide can rent a data center or a PC via Golem’s network for creating their very own supercomputers. 2. Smart contracts – These contracts are digital contracts that can be programmed and entered on a blockchain. This is because the blockchain is encrypted and has a timestamp. This blockchain network validates the data for a specific time and confirms the presence of a contract that is legally binding. It differs from traditional contracts that define the terms of the transaction- the smart contract enforces those terms. It is anticipated that someday smart contracts will replace the requirements for legal or notary oversight. You may wonder how smart contracts function? They are much like a vending machine. The smart contract operates in the same scenarios. If you drop one coin in the vending machine, a bag of chips will fall into the compartment. In any smart contract, payment in the form of cryptocurrency is processed automatically when the service or the product is delivered. The above can be illustrated better with an example- say there are two people and agree to pay $100 on delivering a specific piece of content. The smart contract will have all the specific details of the payment, timeframes, conditions, the parties’ identity, and everything else that you normally will find in any traditional contract. When the pre-defined terms and conditions are successfully met, the payment is automatically released as per the terms that have been mutually agreed upon. Experts from esteemed names in database consulting, management, and administration RemoteDBA.comstate that legal paperwork, contracts, and other documents related to businesses are often sent back and forth between parties that edit and update them at every step of the process. This makes version control and identity a real battle. This is why blockchain is relied upon, as it can offer businesses a solution. For example, digital signatures can deliver unique identities for every version of any document. Along with the additional encryption of the blockchain and the coded automation of the above processes, smart contracts can give you cost-effective business agreements practically and efficiently. They ensure you get a limited and specific outcome that avoids confusion and the potential for legal issues. 3. Digital identity – Authentication of identity is important globally for culture and commerce. Be it travel, healthcare, banking, national security, online retail, citizenship, and more, identity verification and authorization are important for daily tasks. However, what will happen if you cannot provide the correct paperwork? In such a scenario, the daily function comes to a complete standstill. A worst-case scenario takes place when your digital identity gets stolen and used with malicious intent. It becomes challenging for a person to prove who they are, not over proving who they are. Blockchain technology can help here. It can track and effectively manage digital identities both securely and efficiently. It mitigates the problems associated with systems that rely on passwords. Established on public-key cryptography, blockchain technology deploys digital signatures that verify private keys owned by individuals. Several companies are working on digital authentication systems with blockchain technology. They offer verification of digital identities and passports, birth certificates, residency, government-issued IDs, and wedding licenses. These digital identities can be used on websites and online shopping access to about 1.5 billion people worldwide who have no way of proving who they are. As a result, they are restricted from accessing some essential services because of this flaw. Companies are now working on resolving this problem by working on identity verification systems with blockchain technology. Blockchain additionally has possible applications a long ways past bitcoin and cryptographic money. According to a business point of view, it’s useful to consider blockchain innovation as a sort of cutting edge business measure improvement programming. Shared innovation, for example, blockchain, guarantees the capacity to further develop the business measures that happen between organizations, drastically bringing down the “cost of trust.” For this explanation, it might offer fundamentally better yields for every speculation dollar spent than most customary inner ventures. Monetary organizations are investigating how they could likewise utilize blockchain innovation to overturn everything from clearing and repayment to protection. These articles will assist you with understanding these changes—and what you ought to do about them. For an outline of digital currency, start with Money is no article from 2015. We investigate the beginning of bitcoin and give study information on shopper commonality, use, and that’s just the beginning. We likewise see how market members, like financial backers, innovation suppliers, and monetary establishments, will be influenced as the market develops. For a more profound jump into cryptographic forms of money, we suggest that you read the accompanying: - Carving up crypto gives an outline of how controllers are pondering cryptographic money in monetary administrations, both in the United States and abroad. - In Cryptocurrencies: Time to consider plan B, we investigate potential roads for bookkeeping treatment on cryptographic forms of money. - For board individuals, Ten inquiries each board should pose about cryptographic forms of money proposes inquiries to think about while taking part in a discussion about the essential capability of digital currencies. Therefore, from the above, it is evident that blockchain technology is not just confined to bitcoins. Many businesses are accepting it a legitimate mode of payment. It has uses beyond it and proves to be a revolutionary technology in the globe today!

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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The blockchain is simply a database that enables the documentation of digital recording, facilitates authentication, and ensures the irreversibility of data. So why is this technology, which at best plays a marginal role for today's economy and society, so exciting? In order to focus one's ideas, it is easy to neglect their current status and predictions of the commercial viability of individual applications. The fact of information being easily copied and the loss of trust which results in the economic relationship migrating to cyberspace, blockchain promises to solve two of the fundamental problems of the Internet today. In the past, it had been considered impossible to make a distinction between an original and a duplicate in the cyber economy. The marginal cost in the generation of digital assets tended towards zero, enabling a copy of an existing asset to be produced at practically zero costs. It was even seen as part of the digital economy itself. Digital assets are highly portable and are protected from wear and tear, and can be very easily manufactured in large quantities. However, the easy copying of the items causes significant problems for producers because the status of an asset as an 'original' cannot be protected in any way. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that a "copy" of the same amount is generally considered fraud in digital currencies. By introducing this scarcity in the digital world, Blockchain solves the problem. Identical amounts can never be repaid by a global computer network as they are checked. Due to its mechanism, each payment is different. Changes that Blockchain is bringing into the world Blockchain is a type of universal logbook or directory, as described at the start, for transactions of all kinds. This technology aims to, first of all, formalize all economic relations. Secondly, it aims at reducing any economic exchange to the documented substratum and subjecting it to the logbook rules. That means that blockchain is a ubiquitous technology that guarantees complete transparency of transactions but requires strictly regulated processes for economic transactions. Ubiquity: the technology blockchain is neutral records "content." Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are one application among many. Blockchain is a universal structured space for Value and valuable interactions representation like Wikipedia. Transparency: it ensures optimum transparency thanks to the ability of the blockchain to register business transactions in an imperfect manner. The individual computers involved in a blockchain can verify every transaction. That involves the end of the grey areas, which are impervious to the blockchain, in contrast to cash, whose tortuous roads are ideal for money washing. Rule-based systems: while Bitcoin was in fact only the first application of the blockchain, its ambition to ensure full economic transactions in all fields is evident from smart contracts. Blockchain technology itself certainly does not lay down any rules. It does, however, permit the digital presentation of rules in the form of "smart contracts" and the automatic enforcement of any contracting party's rights. Industries blockchain will be affecting and the economic impact associated with it Since all these blocks are encrypted, when a single block is altered, other blocks down the chain will essentially be altered, so it is easy to detect who has altered the information. The data in the network blockchain is also replicated on all network computers, making verifying the data within each block easy. We have a transparent, shared database with blockchain technology that is protected against deletion, manipulation, and review – a database in which contracts can be integrated. There are endless opportunities to build with this technology! Blockchain is supposed to disrupt multiple industries, alter our social and economic systems, and essentially transform our business practices. These cases show you how our business can transform our economy and how we are doing business. Transparency in bookkeeping Blockchain can transform politics and finance as we know them by using a bookkeeping platform. The technology is both incorruptible and fully transparent when used as a financial ledger. It is the ideal tool for ending corruption in finances, politicians, and institutions. Blockchain technology can also reduce account errors payable and receivable through automated encryption and verification. In the blockchain, participants are identified with each transaction, the time and date are checked and related information is secured. Can the necessity of an accountant be reduced? Perhaps not all for some instances. The use of blockchain technology and automation of processes is an important feature for accountants. It could also enable accountants to monitor things in real-time – facilitating their ability to be informed about changes or problems. How about not needing a degree in fancy law to perform a contract? Blockchain eliminates those needs. It eliminates the need for a middle man to carry out certain contracts and to automate goods and services exchanged. Not only do smart contracts hold every party liable, but they can also automate any payments related to the contract because they are available under the ledger. After receiving the deliverables – both parties fulfill the conclusion of the contract. Remember, this doesn't mean lawyers are outdated. Some agreements and complex agreements may still be required for the drafting and execution of professional legal information. However, blockchain could help two parties to work directly and simply for simpler agreements. Thinking about the idea of smart contracts, blockchain could be a great tool for the management of projects. A project plan can be carried out by means of a series of intelligent contracts to complete the project. Certainly, it would be easier to handle. It could also improve management reporting and basically eliminate the need for calculating project management analytics, such as complete percentage and value management. Prevention of Voter Fraud Do you know all those questions and discussions about voting fraud that we've had over the years? All this could be eliminated through Blockchain technology by providing an unhackable electronic voting system. Believe it or not, there is no record of your whole lifetime reporting your health. Sure, you are covered by health records. But they're not complete and they're not all there in one place. But what if they did? What if they did? Can you imagine how effective and powerful health care can be if your healthcare professionals can track over the years all of your vital signs, all the medicines you have taken, all diseases, every procedure, and every appointment with a doctor? It would be much easier to coordinate care with blockchain. Blockchain has much to offer, but it also has a long way to go before it gets fully integrated. The research on the use of technology by Harvard Business Review indicates that two dimensions affect the way basic technology develops and its business use cases. - Novelty. How the public needs to understand their use cases and the problems they resolve. - Complexity. How parties must work together to make technology worthwhile. You are likely to have some impact on your business by blockchain. Ripple, Bitcoin, Ether, and Cryptocurrency are most talked about now. While everybody is in a hurry to find out how they can invest in cryptocurrency and earn money, businessmen and developers, and businesses are plunging into the options and finding use-cases of blockchain technology in several industries.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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Illustration by xresch If you are into the Blockchain space, chances are that you have encountered terms like on-chain data, on-chain transactions, on-chain analysis, and on-chain metrics. And if you have just started following this emerging technology, then gaining an insight into the concepts of on-chain data or on-chain analysis might get a bit tricky. By the end of this article, hopefully, you will walk away with a decent understanding of this crucial Blockchain topic. Recap: What is a Blockchain? However, before entering the world of on-chain data, let us have a quick recap regarding what Blockchain is: Even though the breakthrough of Blockchain, in popular culture, is often accredited to Satoshi Nakamoto for his revolutionary invention of Bitcoin, the original minds behind the idea of a cryptographically secured chain happen to be Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta. The two academic researchers proposed in 1991 the development and implementation of a timestamp-based digital tool that was intended to make valuable documents published on the web both permanent and tamper-proof. A «proof protocol» would support and verify that a document existed at a certain point of time in a certain definite version. Today’s most popular Blockchain protocols contain many of the original characteristics. In layman terms, a public Blockchain might be defined as a digital chain consisting of blocks where each block contains tranches of valuable information and a unique alphanumeric code known as a hash. A block is not only marked with its own unique hash but also with the hash of the previous block – a system through which Blockchains become almost impossible to be hacked once they have reached a certain length. Conceptually, a Blockchain is defined as a digital public ledger consisting of records distributed over a wide network of nodes where a single node (i.e. computer system), person, or organization is not authorized to make changes or control the flow of information unilaterally. Blockchain technology lays the foundation for a potential shift from centralized financial and information systems to decentralized public networks that enable a «trustless» transfer of value and information. What is on-chain data? On-chain data includes the information of all occurred transactions on a certain Blockchain network – or put differently – all information written on the blocks of a Blockchain. In case of a public Blockchain, this information is available for everyone to see. The data can be broadly classified into three distinct categories: Transaction data (e.g. sending and receiving address, transferred amount, remaining value for a certain address) Block data (e.g. timestamps, miner fees, rewards) Smart contract code (i.e. codified business logic on a Blockchain) On-chain vs. off-chain data Off-chain transactions are not (or at least not fully) executed and recorded on the Blockchain. This is in sharp contrast with on-chain transactions where the transfer of value occurs on the Blockchain network and therefore gets recorded. In a more traditional sense, the two kinds of transactions can be understood as «on-record» and «off-record» practices: Imagine a scenario where you are required to transfer a sum of money to X’s account. You can discharge your liability by following the traditional routine of transferring the value to X’s bank account via your bank account or some third-party vendor, like Paypal. Alternatively, you might prefer to settle the debt through other practices such as funding coupons and sharing the code with X or simply exchanging your PayPal password with X. While in the first case the bank or third-party provider typically charges its customers a fee for their services, the alternative practices permit individuals to dodge transaction costs. Similarly, in a Blockchain ecosystem, off-chain transactions can occur in various ways. The simplest off-chain settlement involves the exchange of private keys through which full access to the owner’s funds are granted. Now, this prompts us to ponder over possible reasons for a party to opt for an off-chain transaction over an on-chain transaction. One key factor concerns the high transaction costs for exchanging cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Especially for small transactions the miner fee might exceed the amount to be transferred, consequently making such a transaction economically unfeasible when executed on-chain. Performance is another crucial factor: On-chain transactions are not only limited in terms of speed but also regarding size. As a result, it can become very expensive to store a larger amount of data on-chain. Moreover, certain actors on public Blockchains may favor off-chain over on-chain transactions due to privacy concerns. On-chain analysis and metrics On-chain analysis is an emerging field aiming at extracting and scrutinizing the plethora of available data about public Blockchain transactions to facilitate a better decision making. Its tools and techniques are often applied for trading and investment purposes. One of the first popular on-chain metrics was Coin Days Destroyed, introduced in 2011 to track the activity on the Bitcoin network. Coin Metrics’ launch of the Network Value-to-Transaction (NVT) ratio in 2017, a method to value Bitcoin taking into account both its market capitalization and actual usage in terms of network transactions, led to a broader interest for on-chain analysis techniques. Today, a vast number of similar and often more sophisticated on-chain indicators exist. In the next section of this article I will present different on-chain data and analytics tools that let users play around with and learn more about on-chain indicators. Popular providers of on-chain data and analytics tools The amount of energy, time, and money required to run a node, store, and maintain a copy of an entire Blockchain is not within the reach of every individual or organization. To logically gather, structure and analyze the captured Blockchain data is an even more difficult task. Luckily, different companies have emerged over the past few years that offer dissected on- and off-chain data to users. Here I briefly summarize the solutions of eight popular Blockchain data providers: The mission of Coin Metrics, founded in 2017, is to provide investors with in-depth market knowledge regarding all major cryptocurrencies. They offer four products: 1) Network data (e.g. visualization tools, on-chain exchange flows, coin age metrics, transaction backgrounds) 2) Market data covering the top 20 global exchanges 3) Indexes 4) Third-party data (e.g. Twitter sentiment feed) A formula builder, legacy and reference rate charts complement Coin Metrics’ product portfolio. Switzerland-based Glassnode is renowned in the Blockchain space for its ever-expanding range of innovative on-chain indicators. The company’s online platform is very easy to use thanks to a great user interface. Even with the free plan, one can access a broad set of data points. Glassnode also publishes in-depth reports about on-chain insights on a regular basis. Furthermore, users can learn about different on-chain analysis concepts and indicators in Glassnode’s free «academy». Dappradar tracks over 3,000 Decentralized Applications (dapps) in real-time. The platform is a hub for accessing the ranking of the most popular applications running on distributed computing systems. Dappradar also acts as a distribution channel for developers looking to expand their reach as well as providing them with the advertising facilities for new dapps. Dune Analytics mostly deals with Ethereum on-chain data and enables users to access, analyze, and visualize decoded Ethereum smart contracts into self-explanatory graphs and reports. The Ethereum analytics website renders actionable market insights and reports extracted from on-chain data. IntoTheBlock’s Blockchain indicators are categorized into four main groups: 1) Ownership (provides insights based on ownership concentration) 2) Financial (covers price information to provide insights into profitability / the monetary value of transactions) 3) Network (user growth, transaction activity patterns, costs) 4) Social (Telegram and Github metrics). Xangle provides a 360-degree overview of a vast number of Blockchain assets or projects by combining off-chain and on-chain data. The statistics are presented publicly on each project's dashboard page. CryptoQuant is a Seoul-based Blockchain data solution provider that focuses on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins. Its data, which is available via API or directly in Python, R and Excel, can be classified into four subsets: 1) On-chain data 2) Exchange data 3) Miner data 4) Network data Germany-based Anyblock not only offers data and tools but also professional consulting services for blockchain projects. Anyblock’s unique Index allows visitors to scan and explore data for 22+ Ethereum- and Bitcoin-based products in real-time. In a world where data is considered the new gold and Blockchain is on the brink of transforming how (digital) value is being stored and exchanged, the relevance of emerging on-chain analytics practices cannot be overstressed. Different players have emerged over the past few years, offering their users a plethora of easy-to-apply on-/off-chain indicators and data sets. It is in the nature of things that not all indicators will prove insightful over time. Nevertheless, the on-chain analysis phenomena is here to stay and will likely grow further along with the general adoption of Blockchain technology.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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With the growth of cryptocurrency technology and a new wave of investors looking for alternatives to traditional trading, cloud mining has become a popular phenomenon. But often with the good comes the bad. Ponzi schemes and scams have started surfacing on what appears to be legit cloud mining sites. Users too often invest their money into a cloud mining service they find online and out of the blue - the company vanishes. Instead of generating a steady stream of passive income, many find themselves losing thousands. Despite untrustworthy sites out there tarnishing the reputation of cloud mining, with the right company, cloud mining can be hugely profitable without users having to lift much of a finger. If you are looking to dive into the world of cryptocurrency without having the technical experience or millions in your bank account, cloud mining is the way to go. Mining crypto no longer has to be a costly investment that bumps up your electricity bill and consumes every hour of your day. Instead, crypto mining has made crypto more accessible to all. The key is to pick reliable cloud mining solutions that fit your investment goals. What is Cloud Mining? Cloud mining is crypto mining through the cloud - instead of owning hardware that will increase your electricity bill and cost you an arm and a leg. Participants outsource computational work for crypto mining where they rent hash power from a company that mines crypto on their behalf. Cloud mining has many advantages such as not needing to deal with maintenance issues, high cost of equipment, equipment deprivation costs, and energy costs. It makes your life a lot easier. Before getting caught up in the nitty-gritty details, what is crypto mining? Mining is what keeps the cryptocurrency model intact, the process by which transactions are verified and new coins are released to the blockchain. This process involves computers solving unhuman-like equations known as hashes, the fastest correct answer gets a transaction to validate and therefore a reward of that crypto coin. Through the cloud mining process, you outsource the equipment from a third party that solves these hashes through a cloud mining contract, without having to purchase your own expensive physical hardware. By renting cloud computing power, you do not need to install and run the hardware and software, allowing for hassle-free passive income. So, how do you make money from cloud mining? Cloud mining companies allow people to open an account and participate in crypto mining through a pricing model, usually a commission. Users purchase a certain amount of hash power and profits are allocated in relation to the hash power purchased and the current price of the coin. Companies tend to have cloud mining profitability calculators to provide potential customers with clues on earnings expected for a given hashrate purchased. How Does Cloud Mining Work? Cloud Mining is where two worlds collide - cloud computing and cryptocurrency mining. Cloud computing is where users access the processing power and storage capabilities of huge computer systems that are maintained by the companies that own them. Think Dropbox, Gmail, and Facebook. Cryptocurrency mining is the process where computers crunch difficult numbers to solve hashes, creating new blocks on the blockchain. Even the most powerful computers find it complex to solve these hashes. A fast answer allows miners to validate transactions and release new coins. Mining is the backbone of the cryptocurrency model not only for the validation and release of coins but also because it maintains the blockchain's security. The blockchain is a distributed ledger, a database that is shared and synchronized across multiple nodes, making it accessible to multiple people and allowing transactions to be visible to all. Cloud mining is the hybridization of these two concepts. Cloud mining companies will set up massive mining farms, larger than a single individual could manage and mine cryptocurrency using their systems. Cloud mining sites will then offer contracts to potential customers who can purchase a percentage of the hash power for a period of time. Picture a warehouse with thousands of servers and rigs, cooling technology, and enormous power supplies, as well as experts maintaining the hardware. Remember that the more powerful and faster a computer is, the higher the likelihood of solving a hash and generating a block in a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. Users are essentially sharing their computational resources by renting out a powerful cloud mining service, increasing the probability of generating a block. If successful, they are rewarded with cryptocurrency, but the amount each receives is calculated through their purchased percentage of hash power. Within cloud mining sites, there are two types of models - hosted mining and leased hash power. The hosted mining model is the most popular model for mining Bitcoin where customers purchase or lease mining hardware located on mining farms. The equipment is regularly maintained and replaced when necessary by the cloud mining service provider. Customers know that technical issues are taken care of at all times, whilst having direct control over their crypto. The second model of cloud mining on cloud mining platforms is leased hash power. This cloud mining model allows customers to lease computer power from a mining farm while getting a share of the farm’s overall profits from crypto. Instead of renting hardware, customers are leasing a fixed amount of hash power. This model is most popular for altcoins, all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. All customers need to do is open an account on a cloud mining site with this model and select their preferences such as the hashing power and the time period of the mining contract. Best Cloud Mining Services In 2022 While cloud mining can be hugely profitable, the risk lies in betting on the wrong cloud mining companies. The key to achieving financial independence through cloud mining solutions is finding the right home for your money to minimize risk. The following list includes the best cloud mining sites on the market in 2022 that you can trust to generate reliable passive income. A top-rated cloud mining company, Shamining launched in the United Kingdom in 2018 and has cloud mining farms in London, Cape Town, and California. Along with Bitcoin cloud mining, users can access other crypto mining such as Ethereum mining. The cloud mining platform has been built to cater to cloud mining newbies, making it suitable for miners who are just getting started. The interface is like no other - it almost feels like a game making the mining process intuitive. The cloud mining company features customer service available at all times, as well as an investment calculator so that customers can have a clue about their potential profits. Along with a high level of computing and profitability, Shamining’s mining farms feature wind turbines and solar panels. Anyone can start mining with a minimum deposit of $500 and investments above $100,000 are possible if you contact the platform. Users can withdraw a minimum of $0.001 BTC and instant payouts are available 24/7. Shamiming’s service costs are already included in the GH/s (Giga hashes per second) price. There are four different types of mining contracts on the cloud mining platform - CPU, ASIC, GPU, and individual contracts. Each offers a distinct hash power and pricing, as well as different rates of profitability. The CPU Miners contract provides the power of 23 580 GH/s for $0.0120 per GS/s. The GPU Miners contract offers the power of 94 340 GH/s for $0.0113 per GH/s. The ASIC Miners contract offers the power of 235 849 GH/s for $0.0109 per GH/s. All three of these contracts offer profitability starting from 143%. An individual contract offers the power of 235 849 to 943 400 GH/s for $0.0106 per GS/s. Committed to making crypto more accessible to all with affordable pricing, GMiners is a cloud mining platform based in London. An eco-friendly cloud mining site, GMiners uses renewable energy to power its mining farms across Europe and Asia. The cloud mining site has incredible features such as a personal manager for each member that helps guide users through the platform. The best part - GMiners is a regulated mining company meaning income is securely protected. The interface is easy to navigate, featuring a dashboard with access to real-time profits and data so that users are in control of their investments. GMINERS also offers round-the-clock customer service to its 3000+ customers. Users can also join an affiliate program for extra passive income from Bitcoin cloud mining. The minimum investment is $500 and users can withdraw funds quickly. The price per 1 GH/s is $0.0120 for all plans. GMINERS offers four types of 1-year mining contracts: Start, Professional, Smart, and VIP. The Start contract offers the power of 90 000 GH/s at $0.0120 per GH/s, with a 143% profitability. The Professional contract offers the power of 450 000 GH/s at $0.0120 per GH/s, with a 149% profitability. The Smart contract offers the power of 2 000 000 GH/s at $0.0120 per GH/s, with a 156% profitability. The VIP contract offers the power of infinite GH/s at $0.0120 per GH/s, with a 170% profitability. 3. Minedollars (Inactive) Servicing over 320,000 customers from over 100 countries, Minedollars offers users the opportunity to mine various tokens at a competitive cost. If you are looking to go beyond Bitcoin and mine cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Dogecoin, Minedollars is one o the best cloud mining sites to do so. From experienced miners to beginners, Minedollars’ crypto mining capacity is suitable for all, with over 1 million transactions since it was founded. The platform features a profitability calculator to calculate the potential profit of hash power purchases. The cloud mining service’s system is also secured and protected using DDos protection and SSL. Moreover, Minedollars offers a referral system where you can receive a 3% commission on your referrals’ purchases. Minedollars has no minimum deposit requirement or maintenance fees. Users can easily withdraw funds (minimum $100), paying no fees on the first withdrawal. The platform features 9 investment packages at the moment. The Ethereum 5-day contract costs $600, with a fixed return of $600 + $69 (93% profitability). The Dogecoin 60-day contract costs $5,800, with a fixed return of $5,000 + $8,700 (44% profitability). 4. Hashlists (Inactive) Created in London, Hashlists has around 240,000 users with an average profit rate of 150%. This user-friendly cloud mining website allows users to mine Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash, Dogecoin, and Filecoin with no maintenance costs required. The platform also allows you to mine stable coins, USDC and USDT. With quality customer service and an accessible platform, Hashlists unites experienced investors and newcomers. Hashlists even features a free mining option called the Daily Free Experience Plan. When you first register, you get $8 for free so that you can start making passive income. This one-time 1-day contract costs $8 with a fixed return of $8 + $0.8 (90% profitability). The minimum deposit and withdrawal amount is $100 and there are transaction fees when withdrawing that are paid to the blockchain being used. Withdrawals are sent to the wallet of your choice within 30 minutes. Hashlists offers 8 investment contracts such as ETC Mining and BTC Mining. The ETH Mining 7 day contract costs $540, with a fixed return of $540 + $75.6 (34% profitability). The BTC Mining 20 day contract costs $1,800, with a fixed return of $1,800 + $700.2 (97% profitability). Over 2,000,000 people have chosen Genesis Mining for mining Bitcoin, as well as Monero, Zcash, and others. With mining farms or servers in countries such as Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, as well as over 100 million crypto transactions, Genesis Mining is one of the best cloud mining companies out there. Founded in 2013, Genesis Mining also built the first mining farm in Eastern Europe due to their strong belief in the future of digital currencies. The cloud mining site features flexible payment and withdrawal through different mediums, as well as 24/7 customer service. Moreover, the cloud mining website features an auto-allocation feature that allows you to configure the hash power in relation to your specifications for mining multiple coins. Withdrawals are available when reaching a minimum depending on the cryptocurrency. For Bitcoin, this stands at 0.0015 BTC. There are also daily maintenance fees for some coins that are deducted from your profit. The minimum investment is only $16, the price of their cheapest package. Some mining contracts can go up to around $7,000. The Radiant Large Professional Ethereum mining contract runs for 24 months and costs $4,999. There are zero maintenance fees, your only cost is what you pay for the hash power. ScryptCube’s data centers house tens of thousands of high-efficient computing equipment, taking on the hard work to set up and operate the mining system. The cloud mining website's goal is to make crypto mining accessible, allowing users to generate regular passive income without needing in-depth technical knowledge. Along with quality customer service and an intuitive interface, the cloud mining service offers an attractive referral program, where you can earn 3% for every purchase made by one of your referrals. With a minimum investment of $1.90, ScryptCube is a suitable option for cloud mining newbies. ScryptCube provides three types of mining contracts that you can purchase without restriction - Bitcoin mining (1 year), Ethereum mining (1 year), and ETH staking (coming soon). For Bitcoin mining, prices start at $4.9 per 100 GH/s for 1 year and $7.5 per 100 GH/s for 2 years. There are no maintenance fees and contracts can be bought via BTC, visa, and MasterCard. You can withdraw immediately from day one of mining. Founded in 2013 in China by Bitmain Technologies, Hashnest is one of the earliest cloud mining sites. In 2014, the company acquired Snowball.io, a cloud mining platform. With over 400,000 users all over the globe, the company hosts multiple brands of miners such as Antiminer S17. This is one of the best cloud mining sites for those looking to mine long-term, as their cloud mining contracts can last a lifetime. The site also provides a distinctive feature as customers can buy and sell hashrates freely on the Hashnest market. Featuring leading Bitcoin mining equipment, manufactured by Bitmain, the platform allows you to mine Bitcoin, Litecoin, Zcash, and Dash. Hashnest only accepts Bitcoin as a payment method and uses PACMiC so that users have to pay no costs at all. Contract prices are not available at the moment. A subsidiary of Bitdeer Group, Bitdeer was founded by Celine Lu in 2018 and is committed to providing comprehensive cloud mining solutions. The platform features flexible plans, direct payouts from pools, and traceable miners. The cloud mining company has served customers from over 200 countries, attracting 3,000,000 views to the site each month. Bitdeer mining farms have been created across Europe and North Africa, with over 100,000 miner units. Users can mine Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and several other cryptocurrencies on the website. Bitdeer also features an app available on Android and iOS that allows users to manage earnings and contact 24/7 customer support easily. The minimum investment on Bitdeer is $1,833.50 for Bitcoin cloud mining and contract prices vary depending on the cryptocurrency. The BTC Antiminer S17+Plan costs $2,146 for a 270-day contract, with a hashrate of 70 TH/s and a static revenue rate of 7.97%. mining centers across continents in Canada, Russia, Iceland, Georgia, Algeria, China, and more. IQ Cloud Mining has a wide selection of cloud mining contracts with popular cryptocurrencies and 100+ altcoins. With customer service available 24/7 based in the United Kingdom and Russia, the platform responds in under 2 minutes to any queries. The cloud mining site offers daily payouts without any withdrawal commission. IQ Cloud Mining also offers a pro contract with 20% interest per year. The minimum investment is $250. The company offers 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, and lifetime cloud mining contracts. The SHA-256 contract for mining 10 major coins has a minimum hashrate of 10 GH/s with a contract price of $0.066 per 10 GH/s and has a potential income of up to 125%. BeMine was established in 2018 in Russia and CIS countries, operating cloud mining equipment in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and more. Users can purchase an ASIC-miner and store their equipment in partnered data centers, without having to be present for transportation, maintenance, etc. However, instead of buying a whole ASIC, you can also buy a share of the equipment, as BeMine sells up to 1/100 of ASIC. The cloud mining company also features a crypto exchange where you can purchase and sell digital currencies, as well as manage investments on the site. The minimum investment is $61. The minimum withdrawal amount is 0.005 BTC and an electricity fee is charged at $0.054 kW/h. There is also a commission-based withdrawal fee - 3% for up to 0.05 BTC and 7% for under 0.01 BTC. Freemining is a secure and high-speed Bitcoin mining platform that uses the latest technology and mining equipment to deliver results. With over 50,000 customers, the company prides itself in delivering a fully transparent cloud mining solution. Founded in 2018, the company has set up data centers all over the globe with the latest ASICs chips and mining rigs. Freemining offers a quality referral program where you get a 20% bonus when inviting a friend to the platform. Customers can access round-the-clock customer service by high-skilled engineers. Offering innovative cloud mining solutions, customers purchase investment plans and get paid in an amount of Bitcoin per day, rather than buying hashrates or renting equipment. The minimum investment is 0.002 BTC. Customers can access their payments within 24 hours if they reach a minimum of 0.005 BTC. There is also a fixed transaction fee of 0.001 BTC. There are a few different packages such as the Basic package at 0.002 BTC, Starter package at 0.015 BTC, and more for 1-year contracts. Founded in 2015, ChickenFast is a Bitcoin cloud mining site that has been around for a while, committed to simplifying the cloud mining process for customers, making it newbie-friendly. This is one of the best cloud mining solutions for Bitcoin miners who are just getting started. The platform utilizes a unique AI algorithm that shifts computer power to the most profitable digital currency at the time, ensuring real passive income. Customer service is personalized - a personal manager is assigned to each customer so that every user feels supported. The Bitcoin mining platform requires a minimum investment of $400. There are no hidden fees and payouts can be made daily in Bitcoin when a minimum of 0.0003 BTC is reached. Withdrawals are processed only after 24 hours. ChickenFast has five contracts with differing computer power - Classic, Gold, Platinum, Boss, and Bronze, starting from $400 to $50,000. Offering 1.5% of the world’s BTC hashrate, HashShiny emerged in 2017 and has mining centers in Myanmar and Kazakhstan that use hydropower and wind power. The company features a top-quality team with expertise in the blockchain industry, as well as an R&D division. Customers can mine several cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Litecoin, and more. You can also make a 10% referral commission bonus for every purchase made by someone you refer onto the site. A fully functioning mobile app is available, with better usability than the website featuring a quality mobile cloud mining software. HashShiny states they have the lowest price on electricity ($0.05/kWh) and purchasing costs in the industry. The maintenance fee for Bitcoin cloud mining is $0.0015 / 10 GH/s / day. Payouts happen once a day. The company offers seven cloud mining contracts. The Dogecoin Cloud Mining 2-year contract costs $1.20 per 1 MH/s with a maintenance fee of $0.0016 /1 MH/s /day. Founded in 2015, Hashing24 partners with the world’s leading full-service blockchain technology company called Bitfury to produce its hash power. Hashing24 is the one and only official partner with Bitfury for crypto mining. The Bitfury Group has data centers in Canada, Georgia, Norway, and Iceland with innovative infrastructure such as high-tech immersion cooling systems. With over 200,00 users, Hashing24 has sold out 35 000 PH/s hashrate capacities, and over 1000 BTC has been mined and withdrawn by customers. Investment starts at $8.58, one of the lowest out there. The minimum withdrawal amount is 0.0007 BTC and customers can withdraw at any time. The company offers various Bitcoin mining contracts that can be customized to your needs. Frequently Asked Questions What are the types of Cloud Mining? There are two types of cloud mining on cloud mining sites - hosted mining and leased hash power. Hosted mining is where customers purchase or lease mining hardware located on mining farms, while not having to worry about maintenance. Leased hash power allows customers to lease computer power. Instead of renting hardware, customers are leasing a fixed amount of hash power. This model is most popular for altcoins, all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. What are the advantages of Cloud Mining? Outsourcing your crypto mining to cloud mining sites has various advantages. You do not need to deal with maintenance issues, the high cost of equipment, equipment deprivation costs, and energy costs. The air around you will not overheat and you do not need to deal with the noise of running a cloud mining farm - not fun. The best cloud mining sites also allow you to find the most profitable contract for your goals, as well as make use of referral programs that increase your passive income. What are the steps on how to get started with Cloud Mining? Research the options available The most important step when getting started with cloud mining is ensuring you have done your research to avoid scams. Look for the best cloud mining sites with brand recognition, thousands of users, and positive reviews. Make sure to go through the contracts available as cloud mining sites offer a diverse range of investment packages to fit your passive income goals. Register with a cloud mining service Once you have found the best cloud mining service for your budget and investment requirements, all you have to do is register online. This is an easy process - just fill in your details like your email and phone number and you are ready to get started. Fund your cloud mining contract Pick out the investment contract that best suits you, many cloud mining sites allow you to personalize contracts to fit your needs at the time. Reputable companies such as Shamining require a $500 minimum investment so go ahead and fund your cloud mining contract. Initiate cloud mining operations This is the easiest part - start cloud mining with no worries about maintenance and high electricity bills. Get cloud mining profits Depending on the platform, you will receive newly mined coins every day and can withdraw your funds. What is the best Cloud Mining service? The best cloud mining service out there is Shamining, a company from the UK providing a high level of computing and profitability. Users can access Bitcoin cloud mining, as well as altcoins. Shamining has cloud mining farms all over the globe powered by wind turbines and solar panels, making the crypto mining process more eco-friendly. There are four attractive mining contracts on the cloud mining platform - CPU, ASIC, GPU, and individual contracts. Each offers a distinct hash power and pricing, as well as different rates of profitability. Is Cloud Mining legit? While many cloud mining sites out there are scams, our favorite cloud mining companies offer fair pricing, premium mining equipment, and promising profitability rates. Cloud mining can be a profitable investment, guaranteeing you passive income with minimal work. While owning your mining equipment is costly and time-consuming, outsourcing computational power to quality cloud mining sites ensures you a lower risk without needing large amounts of capital.

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Fiscal agencies have been facing several challenges regarding the legitimate exercise of professions. In particular, the context of medicine exercise poses as a crucial one, since the professionals involved in this field are responsible for dealing with the health of third parties. However, we may notice a number of incidents and frauds related to the professionals records of physicians, such as issuing forged diplomas or availability of information not validated. In order to avoid these frauds, one can highlight the relevance of investigating innovative solutions aiming to maintain in a safe and transparent way the professional history of each doctor. In this context, our objective and major contribution is to present MIRIAM, a blockchain-based web application based on the Hyperledger platform, that allows, in a decentralized and reliable fashion, the storage of relevant information necessary for managing registrations of medical professionals. In addition, we explored the Brazilian regulatory framework to clarify the solution's feasibility in a real-world workflow scenario. Software And Hardware

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Roermond, Netherlands , Sept. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The new pioneering solution from CADChain is a cost effective, reliable, and simple approach to a challenging problem. The digital economy is providing accessibility and opportunities for all globally. However, vulnerabilities arise when valuable intellectual assets, such as data, are shared with different parties. Misuse and misappropriation of intellectual property, such as computer aided design (CAD) data, is the perfect example. More about CADChain: https://cadchain.com CADChain’s newest solution recognises that while the need for sharing and collaborating during the design phase of any product is essential, the rate at which unprotected digital assets are being created is unprecedented. This has the potential to create a ‘perfect storm’ whereby creators and owners cannot adequately protect their work. Therefore, CADChain is giving birth to BORIS, an end-to-end security and tracking solution, to ensure users are protected while their CAD work is in development or changes ownership. This gives creators, designers, and owners peace of mind, whether they are working alone, collaborating, or working within a client partnership. Although CADChain is a relatively new seed-funded company, it has grown from four members to 25 in the space of six months. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Violetta Shishkina, has a clear vision for the future: “We’re creating an novel company that is delivering tangible value” View Violetta’s LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/violettashishkina She champions gender balance within her workforce and is aiming for a 50/50 gender split, as she knows diverse teams outperform those that are single-sex or heavily biased towards one gender. In addition, she places an emphasis on strengthening the company offering by hiring individuals who meet desired profiles and bring a specific skill set. For instance, Claudio Cocorocchia is a recent strategic hire who comes from the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) leadership team, where he was responsible for the organisation’s digital business services unit. He has joined CADChain as a senior advisor and believes the company offers a unique proposition that is effectively leveraging the benefits of blockchain technology. He commented: “CADChain provides a game-changing solution needed by today’s designers. It mitigates real risks caused by the shortened and rapid product development cycles of today’s digital economy, where sensitive data is constantly being shared. The solution makes CAD files more secure, easier to control, share and in the future, license, whilst reducing the risk of infringement or misuse – CADChain democratises intellectual asset protection and management for design data.” Company CEO and co-founder, Violetta Shishkina, said: “The balance of qualities and perspectives makes CADChain a place of innovation; great teamwork is achieved through excellent communication, quick problem-solving, and mutual attention.” “A gender equality policy ensures not only great teamwork and brilliant performance, which creates the ideal environment for business to flourish, but also credibility as it shows the company’s social responsibility awareness,” she added. More about Claudio Cocorocchia’s appointment:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cadchain-gains-new-team-member-claudio-cocorocchia-from-world-/

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Learning about cryptocurrencies can be frustrating when things start getting technical and hard to understand. It doesn’t help when you have to learn a whole new lingo, and most of it is niche acronyms and words made up by techies. If you’ve been researching Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, chances are you’ve come across the term SegWit, which is a short way of referring to Segregated Witness. Many people are talking about SegWit and some think it may have the ability to solve or alleviate the scaling issues associated with Bitcoin and other blockchains. We’re going to give you the fundamentals about Segregated Witness, how it can help with scaling and how it can impact you and your cryptocurrency wallets. What is SegWit? We’ve frequently touched on how Bitcoin has run into issues with the scalability of blockchain technology. For Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency to be widely used and accepted as a payment method for everyday items and activities, transactions need to be processed quickly, and the costs need to be low. Some cryptocurrencies have attempted to improve on Bitcoin’s protocol to alleviate the scalability issues. Dash has its InstantSend feature, and Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are other forks from Bitcoin that allow for faster and cheaper transactions. However, other people in the Bitcoin community have suggested other alternatives to deal with the blockchain’s scalability. Community members often propose recommended improvements through a formalized Bitcoin Improvement Proposal on Github. SegWit was proposed through this method, and it was suggested that the Bitcoin protocol separate the transaction information in the blocks from the witness structure. Each new block takes about 10 minutes to create, so the goal for optimal efficiency is to increase the number of transactions in each new block. The witness structure is the portion of the block where consensus is formed, and the miners and wallets on the network agree and validate transactions before signing and adding the block to the chain. Removing this information from the block opens up more potential storage space for transactions to be recorded on each block. Most of the community believes increasing block size, and the amount of transactions on each block is the best way to combat the scalability problems. How do witness transactions work? When you use SegWit to create a new transaction, you are essentially decreasing the size of your transaction. This SegWit protocol uses different measurements to determine the size of each transaction and the signature once they are separated. A new unit of measurement is used under this protocol and applied to the signature portion of the block to reduce it to one-fourth of the previous size. Because the signature is the only portion of the block with the reduced size, the overall savings rate on block space is usually up to 50%. But this can effectively turn a 1 MB block size into a 1.8 MB block size, so there is some significant impact from SegWit. How do you take advantage of SegWit? To leverage the improved blockchain protocol using SegWit, you will want to use a SegWit enabled Bitcoin wallet. Don’t worry if you haven’t made the jump to SegWit yet; your legacy wallets are still valid and functional. All transactions are still processed on the same blockchain. Older wallets without SegWit are subject to the higher transaction fees from the old protocol though. What are the benefits of SegWit? By far the biggest benefit of SegWit for users is the reduced transaction fees up to 50-70%. When you use a SegWit enabled Bitcoin wallet, you can choose and customize your transaction fee, which usually compromised speed and performance if you select lower rates, but SegWit transactions have been comparably fast thus far. If SegWit enables miners to spend less time and effort mining new blocks, the overall cost for processing a single transaction will decrease. On top of the lower fee structure with SegWit, the Lightning Network applied to the Bitcoin blockchain will also rely on SegWit’s protocol. This is the speed along with the cost. The Lightning Network’s second layer built on Bitcoin’s blockchain will allow for instant payments, while SegWit reduces the fees. The overall goal is to allow Bitcoin to become a payment method with quicker transactions and fractional fees, so users and merchants adopt digital currencies into their daily lives. What are the best wallets using SegWit? Now that you know a little more about SegWit, and the potential for lower cost transactions using SegWit enabled Bitcoin wallets, which one should you choose going forward for your Bitcoin and cryptocurrency transactions? There are a few quality Bitcoin wallets that are incorporating the SegWit protocol to take advantage of the new benefits. Here are a few wallets to consider: Ledger Nano S While the Ladger Nano S stores Bitcoin along with Ethereum and a couple of dozen other cryptocurrencies, the SegWit capability only applies to Bitcoin transactions. This hardware wallet is a small device that looks like a USB drive with a USB that plugs into your computer. It’s equipped with an OLED screen for reviewing transactions. Ledger hardware wallet has been an early supporter of the SegWit protocol and implemented it into the wallet when it first launched live on the Bitcoin network. The Trezor wallet is another popular hardware wallet that supports both Bitcoin and a whole host of other cryptocurrencies. Security is one of the primary features with Trezor wallets, and the hardware device can serve as your two-factor authentication, so when you want to authenticate a SegWit transaction, all you need to do is plug in the Trezor wallet to your computer to complete the job. Bitcoin Core is a wallet available in desktop versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. This particular wallet has supported the SegWit protocol since version 0.13.1 (if you’ve been using Bitcoin Core and have an older version, update the wallet to get access to the benefits of SegWit). Once you have Bitcoin Core’s latest version, your computer becomes a node on the Bitcoin network and supports SegWit transactions. Bitcoin Knots is another desktop wallet On Windows, Linux and Mac OS that supports SegWit integration along with other neat features for a cryptocurrency wallet. Bitcoin Knots offers users a wallet with an emphasis on security and privacy as well. GreenBits is a mobile wallet for Android and iOS that supports SegWit protocol. If you are familiar with the GreenAddress wallet, this is the same company that’s providing GreenBits. This mobile wallet is easy to use for beginners and has good security practices. If you want to access from your browser, there is a Chrome extension so you can view the wallet from your computer. Then, of course, there is the paper wallet option. You can SegWit enable your paper wallet if you're the type of person that takes every measure to keep your private keys and cryptocurrency as safe as possible. Simply print out your Bitcoin public and private keys, along with the QR code to scan and send Bitcoin, and you’ve got yourself a SegWit enabled paper wallet. SegWit is one piece of the puzzle that helps achieve a faster and cheaper blockchain network. Using the SegWit protocol should help reduce the price burden of Bitcoin transactions as the network ramps up and sees more transactions on the blockchain. Users should consider moving to a SegWit enabled wallet if they haven’t done so already.

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While there are many successful traders and investors worldwide, it would take a book to write What is blockchain technology? Before we dig deeper into blockchain systems, let’s first talk about databases. A database collects and stores information on a computer system. Some databases are intended to keep large amounts of information that can be accessed and used by multiple users simultaneously. Massive databases use servers that are powered by many supercomputers. The key difference between blockchain and a basic database is the method in which the information is structured. Blockchain is a type of database that stores information by storing data in blocks that are then chained together. New data is added to a fresh block, and once it is full, the new block becomes chained to the old block. In this way, the blocks form a chain of data, hence the name blockchain. Therefore, all blockchains are databases, but not all databases are blockchains. The data which is entered into a decentralized blockchain system is irreversible. Every block gets a timestamp as soon as it is added to a chain, making it part of the timeline. Primarily, we use Blockchain technology for ledger transactions such as Bitcoin. It is easiest to understand blockchain by analyzing how Bitcoin uses it. What does decentralized mean? As you already know, Bitcoin is a type of digital currency. However, much like with fiat currencies, there must be a detailed ledger showing all transactions. This is where blockchain comes in. Bitcoin needs a massive database to store its blockchain, so it uses thousands of computers operated by individuals worldwide. So, unlike a company that has a warehouse with servers and computers operated by that company’s staff, Bitcoin’s computers are operated by different individuals. There is no central body, like a bank, that processes Bitcoin’s transactions. It is not one entity but a group of computers. This is how Bitcoin is decentralized. In a blockchain, each node (computer) has a full report of all the blockchain data since its inception. If there’s a data error somewhere, thousands of other nodes can help rectify the error as they all have the information. This also prevents any one from being able to alter the information, which is precisely why the data entered is irreversible. In the case of Bitcoin, the data relates to transactions, but it can be virtually anything. It is worth mentioning that centralized blockchains do exist, just not in the case of Bitcoin. Is it safe? Once the blocks are full, they are stored linearly and chronologically, making it difficult to alter anything without complete consensus. Each block has a corresponding hash as well as the hash of the previous block. These are created by a mathematical function that converts information into strings of letters and numbers. Therefore, if the information is altered, so is the hash. If someone were to alter their copy, it wouldn’t align with everyone else’s hash and would therefore be dismissed. Why is blockchain popular? Decentralized blockchains offer transparency, something that people all around have been longing for. With the war against the COVID-19 pandemic and the quantitative easing, now, more than ever before, people are afraid of the economic consequences. As a result, Bitcoin, a decentralized currency using blockchain, has surged past expectations and risen to 40k in the beginning of 2021. Both retail and institutional investors seek to avoid hyperinflation and see a happy end to these difficult times. However, their lack of guaranteed value and digital nature means the purchase and use of bitcoins carries several inherent risks. The concept of a virtual currency is still novel and, compared to traditional investments, Bitcoin doesn’t have much of a long-term track record or history of credibility to back it.

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Adopting a decentralized way of life, from small steps to giant leaps Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ether (ETH), all share a common goal: to decentralize the way people bank and to open up the under-financed and under-banked world to their own financial independence. Decentralization and accessibility are some of the key motivators in the crypto sphere. Crypto and blockchain were not made for a specific group of people, but for an inclusive group of people. Owning crypto is simply a caveat, an advantage of moving away from the centralized world, but it is not a necessity. It is perhaps worth starting small with accessible and useful ways to perpetuate the idea that decentralization is possible and not just a dream, especially under the boundaries that were proposed many years ago. So, here are five ideas to possibly incorporate into your life, starting brick by brick to live a more decentralized life. Making responsible choices Making sure that the respect you hold with your co-workers and community members is essential to keep everyone on the same level, with their given responsibilities just as important as others. To further explain, a 1999 report called “Decentralization: A Sampling Of Definitions” states that when various responsibilities can be delegated in a way that reflects that all tasks are just as important as the other, people feel more respected, all based on a “horizontally integrated administration system.” Yes, the age-old “treat others the way you want to be treated” maxim undoubtedly rings true. Workers and friends around the world could be more apt to help in various ways if thinking horizontally was more widely practiced. Without the creation of blockchain technology based on the idea of horizontal delegation, the founders of this industry wouldn’t have made the strides they did. Everyone has the right to be respected; therefore, why not have that start with your peers and co-workers? Although using a VPN or a pseudonym is well-researched and smart, you can also establish a permissionless way of living that does not require a centralized body to track your every move. By denying cookies and even clearing the cache once in a while, you can help further keep your data private, as well as shutting off your phone data when not in use for long periods of time. While these measures may seem innocuous and even obvious, it is a great way to build habits that promote decentralization. Donating to charities through NFTs or directly to those in need The NFT boom has seen artists and newcomers alike gain money and fame through auctioning their art. Charities have started to take advantage of this as well. To raise money for helping animals, Animal Welfare Generation One by Tokens for Humanity based in Australia started auctioning off nonfungible tokens (NFT) of animals, such as Sally Seal or High-roller Roland, to an Australian wildlife organization. Another platform, Spring, hosted by We Trust, features a variety of causes where people can donate using ETH and help a variety of organizations that otherwise are unable to generate the funds needed. Finally, NFT for Good on the Binance Smart Chain enables to directly donate and even post your own NFTs so that the proceeds of the auction can go directly to the organization. Alternatively, it is much simpler, and more impactful, to put the money or aid in the hands of the people who need it — through the peer-to-peer technology of crypto, or directly through cash or other money-sharing applications. This requires minimal effort on your behalf and cuts out any intermediary entirely. Getting involved locally Many cities prioritize becoming a place for the international world over the quality of life of their citizens. Further noted in the 1999 report, “Decentralizing governance could be an effective means of achieving critical objectives of the sustainable human development vision — improving access to services, credit, employment, health, and education, eradicating poverty, achieving greater socio-economic equity, especially between men and women and safeguarding the environment.” Therefore, getting involved locally can help mitigate the growth of the international hubs that pop up around the world. While understanding and utilizing blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, voting locally and volunteering in your community can help prevent the globalized cityscape from forming. By volunteering for local industries such as hospitals, donation centers and afterschool programs, you can directly contribute to the idea of sustaining society’s character at a local level. Another great example is working with your local archive or record-keeping center to help piece together the history of the region. This alone rejects the idea that everyone should adhere to the same cultural standards; it characterizes the area and gives a voice and a name to an otherwise (though, hopefully not) forgotten image of a culture that we can build upon as the years pass by. A further suggestion could be to start your own blockchain-based record-keeping chain that keeps track of the history of your city, culture, etc. on a blockchain, further utilizing the technology available. Supporting platforms that promote decentralization The most useful tool in growing the market of decentralization is getting involved in a borderless company that ideally works on a blockchain. When asked about how people can start to break down the barriers of the centralized world we live in, Elena Sinelnikova, co-founder of CryptoChicks, told Cointelegraph: “My advice is to start looking into this direction. Research and think for yourself. The stigma surrounding blockchain technology is born out of fear of those parties who are scared to lose their power.” Sinelnikova has recently started Metis, a platform for people and businesses looking into utilizing blockchain technology with no prior experience, making it easy for newcomers in the industry to use the technology because “blockchain is truly a technology for people.” Being for the people, supporting the people, and, ultimately, making sure that people live a more horizontal and equal life in our communities are easily achievable on blockchains, but also in daily life. The impact of helping a local community and treating people with the same respect is crucial when it comes to moving forward in a seemingly centralized and globalized world. But following even just one of these tips could help perpetuate the idea that, well, maybe decentralization isn’t so bad after all.

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Blockchain solutions development can transform record-keeping and trusted cross-company interactions, ultimately transforming everyone’s experience with its use cases. The possibilities for new business models are limitless. But how can you figure out which blockchain use cases are best for your company? What’s the best place to start when it comes to delivering blockchain to your customers? So, let’s learn how blockchain use cases could help enhance business models across industries. Here’s what we discovered. Know Your Customer (KYC) is a time-consuming, manual process with room for error. Multiple reviewers are involved in the process to ensure that the customer has the necessary background to handle significant sums of money. You can finish the KYC process faster with greater transparency, less verifying of sources of information, and, most importantly, provide a much better experience for the consumer by putting the entire KYC process on blockchain and adding everyone who is involved. Information required: Data about customers Participants: Account managers, third-party researchers, auditors, financial reviewers, and customer service representatives are all examples of third-party researchers. Value creation: A better client experience with process efficiency. One of the most difficult aspects of bank reporting is that the information regulators require is scattered across numerous roles, including front-office staff in local branches and back-end systems engineers at the bank’s headquarters. You may accomplish data integrity on a single chain by combining smart contracts with the immutability of the blockchain. You can also provide regulators access to that chain without having to manually generate reports. Information: History of audits Participants: Governing bodies (from multiple agencies) Value creation: Lowered reporting costs Also, Read | Blockchain in the Financial Services Industry Multiple intermediaries, as well as extensive form filling and processing costs, are involved when sending money to another country. Your bank sends a message to a bank in another country that acts as an intermediate and sends a verification message to the receiving bank. After that, the information is sent back for confirmation, and the funds are transferred. What if you could transfer money with a single mouse click? Blockchain for cross-border payments can eliminate intermediaries and make transfers instantaneous by using network-verified transactions. Information: Transfer of funds Participants: Money senders, receivers, and banks in a variety of nations Value creation: Improved customer satisfaction and reduced transaction costs. Have you ever wondered how your favorite musicians get compensated when you listen to their music on the internet? There are a lot of managers and media firms participating. The music industry could be transformed by blockchain-enabled smart contracts that automatically pay musicians. They cut out the middlemen by connecting their music streaming app to the blockchain. They get reimbursed instantly and openly when their song is streamed. Information: Media records on the internet Participants: Services, providers, artists, and consumers Value creation: Artists will have more opportunities thanks to a new business paradigm. If you’ve ever bought concert tickets from a third-party vendor, you know how aggravating it can be when ticket prices for popular performances soar or, in the worst-case situation, you become a victim of ticket fraud. When it comes to third-party suppliers, show organizers are equally frustrated. When they don’t have access to the customer’s data, it’s tough to give an exceptional client experience. With smart contracts and total transaction visibility, blockchain for ticketing can lock in ticket prices for consumers and provide concert organizers with a 360-degree perspective of the concert goer, allowing them to create personalized and relevant experiences. Information: Purchasing of tickets Participants: Organizers of trade shows and third-party resellers Value creation: Customer costs are cheaper, and the ability to run business campaigns is better. Today’s loyalty programs are compartmentalized. Users become a member of several programs that they are not even able to use. Things would be different if they can have one comprehensive or interoperable system, accumulate loyalty rewards using it, and use the points anywhere they want The network-driven architecture of blockchain, as well as its transparent transactions, make it simple to include several businesses in a single awards program. Integrations are less expensive, and companies from many industries — hotels, airlines, coffee shops, and even food trucks — can join forces to service a single client through a single blockchain-powered loyalty program. Information: Currency rates, loyalty points Participants: A variety of enterprises from various industries Value creation: Lower cost of cross-company integration; better customer experience Labeling of pharmaceuticals The procedure of maintaining prescription medicine labeling is complicated. The criteria differ depending on the region where the medicine is sold. To document various components of the label, several specialists must be consulted, leading in long evaluations and numerous revisions to get the label approved. Creating a blockchain-based healthcare network where all parties involved may share information and give an immutable view of the label enables updating and maintaining the labels faster, easier, and less expensive. Information: Labels for drugs Participants: Pharma companies, regulators, and creative agencies Value creation: Label updates are faster, costs are lower, and compliance is higher. You must fill out the same papers every time you change doctors. Furthermore, getting all of the information you need to complete the application in one location might be difficult. The blockchain development for an EHR system allows a patient’s electronic health records to be shared across a distributed network of providers. This eliminates incompatibility between multiple Electronic Health Record systems, enables patients access, and allows any other practitioner to safely and securely access their health records. Information: Electronic medical records (EMR) (or related transaction data) Participants: patients, and service providers Value creation: Patient satisfaction is improved, and providers are more efficient. Retailers and their suppliers must guarantee that the products they create and sell are safe and meet all regulatory requirements. Furthermore, as consumers, we want to know that the things we buy are ethically sourced. Manual methods and non-digitized forms are used to maintain this information between parties, which raises the expense of doing business. A blockchain-based traceability system allows retailers, suppliers, and third-party labs to share a shared record of a product as it goes through the supply chain in real-time. Both authorities and consumers have comprehensive visibility into the confirmed source of goods. Information: Movement of goods Participants: Retailers, suppliers, third-party labs, and logistical firms are all involved in the supply chain. Value creation: Customer trust, ethical sourcing, and tracking costs Insurance claims processes can be complex and lengthy, involving multiple parties to assess damage, process, and settle a claim. A poor claims experience is a common driver for customer attrition and a significant source of expense for the insurer. Insurers can use blockchain for claims management to construct a network where all parties engaged in analyzing, processing, and adjudicating a claim may access a single source of information. Smart contracts can also be used to automate payouts when predefined conditions are met. Consider how much faster your claim would be processed if it were processed ten times faster. That is the possibility. Information: Products/consumer goods Participants: Insurance company, claims processor, and auto repair shop Value creation: Speedier service, lower claim processing costs For detailed in-depth insights on how you can implement blockchain use cases and applications in your business, connect with our blockchain development experts.

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Avalanche is a job that intends to take the blockchain past bitcoin to come to be an extra flexible network. Since this writing, the Avalanche task is one of the most prominent blockchain network. valanche motivates designers to develop Dpps by sustaining clever agreements However, the firm additionally developed the Bridge, which enables Ethereum possessions to be moved to as well as from the valanche network. valanche includes 3 blockchains pre-installed: Exchange hain (X-hain) for generating as well as trading electronic clever possessions such as supplies as well as bonds that comply with a collection of policies. latform hain (- hain) assists in as well as keeps an eye on the facility of subnets, which is made use of for laying, as well as ontract hain (- hain) enables clever agreements to be developed. The valanche rimary Network verifies as well as controls them all. Finest Avalanche (AVAX) Purses: The task is a counterpart of one of the most prominent blockchain Ethereum. It has actually been a fascinating task to watch on as well as we will certainly be maintaining a close eye on it. This blog site covers the leading 5 valanche purses! Journal Nano X Journal Nano X is just one of one of the most protected as well as relied on pocketbook from the listing of equipment purses Its capacity to connect with third-party purses like the valanche online pocketbook assisted it come to be a sector leader. he Journal Nano X works with all running systems, consisting of Windows, Linux, Mac, ndroid, as well as iS, as well as can be utilized on both desktop computer as well as smart phones. It sustains over 1,500 money as well as symbols, as well as the Journal Live system allows you to acquire, exchange, offer, as well as risk cryptocurrency in a protected atmosphere. It is the 2nd generation of Journal equipment purses, yet it is much exceptional than the initial( initial being the Journal Nano S), with protection made from scratch, even more capability, as well as a bigger display. Obtain Your Journal Nano Purse Currently!!! The globe s most prominent pocketbook, Metamask, was made to be an Ethereum pocketbook in the beginning. Nevertheless, it is feasible to connect to various other blockchains that make use of an EVM (Ethereum Online Maker). MetaMask is a budget for iS as well as ndroid mobile phones that can be utilized as an internet browser plugin. Metamask can run the valanche blockchain as well as a selection of various other clever chains many thanks to this performance. s an outcome, it s the perfect valanche pocketbook for customers that additionally use various other clever chains. It s straightforward to include valanche to Metamask, as well as it just takes a couple of secs. The Tokenocket is additionally a widely known multi-crypto pocketbook. lmost all significant cryptocurrencies as well as symbols are sustained by Tokenocket. s an outcome, you might keep lots of chains in a solitary pocketbook. Tokenocket additionally has an integrated Dapp web browser. So, on every chain, you can find all the Decentralized pplications you prefer. Trading, making rate of interest, as well as gathering NFTs are all made simple. You might currently discover the entire valanche environment from the convenience of your wallet. s an outcome, Tokenocket enables you to take advantage of the complete capacity of blockchain modern technology. Depend On Purse The Depend on pocketbook is the globe s most prominent mobile multi crypto pocketbook f program, the VX -hain is sustained in the Depend on Purse. Since Depend on pocketbook concentrates on an easy to use atmosphere that is straightforward to make use of. The pocketbook has an easy layout as well as sustains lots of chains. This indicates that if you currently make use of various other blockchains as well as Dapps, you might link them to VX straight from your pocketbook. s an outcome of these qualities, any person might trade as well as connect symbols. Not just does the Depend on pocketbook have wonderful performance as well as a tidy look, yet it additionally has a huge as well as committed team behind it. The Binance exchange helped in the intro of the task. s an outcome, it is just one of one of the most well-supported as well as quickest crypto storage space tasks readily available. In contrast to various other purses, the VME pocketbook is instead one-of-a-kind. t the minute, the pocketbook just sustains valanche s symbols as well as NFTs. Nevertheless, it has numerous very distinctive qualities. It additionally works as anti-virus software application. The VME procedure includes the valanche network right into its system, therefore transforming it right into a blockchain pocketbook. Nevertheless, it might additionally be utilized as a decentralised anti-virus system. That s something we ve never ever seen prior to. Although that the effort is still in its beginning, we can see it removing. The capacity to negotiate via VX while having a decentralised anti-virus guarding your tool seems a great attribute! If you re searching for purses that are made particularly for the Avalanche as well as have the ability to hold every one of your AVAX Coin, you wear t need to look a lot additionally than these Purses. These purses are resilient as well as made with the AVAX in mind, so you can select one that is excellent for you.

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The goal is to build a distributed ledger which records transactions in such a way as to avoid the double-spend problem. Suppose Mallory owns a token T and transfers it to Alice. We want to make sure that, once Alice has accepted the payment and honored the transaction (e.g. shipped the goods to Mallory) then Mallory can’t simply reverse the transaction and pay someone else the same token again. If Mallory pays Bob after Alice has accepted the transaction, Bob should be able to find out that Mallory no longer owns the token, before accepting the transaction and shipping Mallory the goods. From this description, we see that the end-users of the system require a few things. Alice needs a way for everyone to find out who really owns T, so - the ledger shouldn’t be able to forge ownership information - the ledger shouldn’t forget ownership information, even if e.g. some data centers are blown up - the ledger should report true information to anyone who asks Given a ledger that satisfies all these requirements, every recipient of a token is incentivized to fully check whether it still belongs to the account paying them. If they accept the payment and ship the goods without fully checking the ledger, their own transactions wouldn’t be accepted by recipients down the line, who do fully check. Intercoin’s design needs to satisfy three security requirements, in order of importance: - Integrity: The network as a source of truth should not be corrupted - Security: Each individual’s tokens cannot be transferred without their signature - Availability: No tokens can be frozen indefinitely, except by a publicly known rule None of these can be guaranteed 100%, but the design strives to come as close as possible with each iteration. Intercoin Technology: Background

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With that in mind, Erik Ackermann explained ten blockchain myths at the beginning of the event. He talked about the close interlocking with Bitcoin, automated transaction protocols – so-called Smart Contracts – and the security of the technology. Our colleagues from Fraunhofer FIT, Prof. Dr. Thomas Rose and Thomas Osterland, provided a playful approach to the topic. Using the interactive Musikbox (jukebox) application, they showed how coordination processes work on the blockhain by selecting songs. The participants were able to agree on a common consensus – Yesterday by The Beatles. Afterwards the practitioners had their say. Andy Völschow from WSW Energie & Wasser AG in Wuppertal impressively illustrated how the energy industry is changing. It is increasingly becoming an enabler by providing an energy marketplace. Blockchain technology is used here to distribute data storage. Ricardo Rohland from join GmbH and Alexander Wäntig from the Ernst Abbe University in Jena used a “Blockchain apple spritzer” as an example to show how the technology ensures transparency. Customers can thus easily follow the route from apple harvesting, transport and juice pressing to filling and storage. At the end of the event, it got once again lively. In two interactive formats for recognizing Blockchain-relevant processes in their own company and on the subject of Smart Contracts, the workshop participants were able to formulate their own ideas and discuss questions together. The workshops were conducted with the kind support of Sorin Simplaceanu, Peter Ehrmann and Patrick Charrier of dCentra UG, our colleague Dr. Christian Leyh and Manelin Moarref of the Blockchain Center of Frankfurt School. Erik Ackermann, who organized the event, is satisfied: “The Blockchain topic is still in its infancy. With our event format, we want to contribute to anchoring the topic in science, business and society at an early stage, as we are convinced of the potential of the technology. We are very pleased about the numerous participants and the positive feedback in the aftermath of the workshop”. /tw Take a look at the workshop (video in German)

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It is the technology behind Bitcoin. This demo will guide you through the blockchain step-by-step. This demo is also covered in this Medium article with freeCodeCamp. For an understanding of cryptocurrency transactions, checkout Coin Demo. - Registr fca skupiny fca - Weby podporované ověřovatelem google - Co je volatilita v obchodních podmínkách - 11 usd na cad - 11800 jpy na usd - Převést balijskou rupii na aud - 975 liber na americké dolary - Jak bezpečné je facebookové tržiště The world’s most trusted crypto wallet . Securely buy, store, and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top cryptocurrencies. Blockchain design with Bitcoin logo. in Technology. Design for a blockchain featuring a net with lots of nodes and Bitcoin logos. Great for articles infographics and The blockchain is a simple yet ingenious way of passing information from A to B in a fully automated and safe manner. One party to a transaction initiates the process by creating a block. Blockchain cube vector concept icon or logo element in thin line style - Compre este vetor e explore vetores semelhantes no Adobe Stock 21/08/2017 Blockchain.com is the most popular place to securely buy, store, and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top cryptocurrencies. Baixe estes Vetor grátis sobre Infografia blockchain, e descubra mais de 11 Milhões de recursos gráficos profissionais no Freepik 21/08/2017 Faça download desta imagem vectorial stock royalty-free Blockchain bitcoin plataforma cartaz com ícones isolados conjunto. Pessoas em reuniões e seminários, conferência sobre criptomoeda, vetor de negócios cibernéticos - 292947328 da colecção de milhões de fotos stock de alta resolução Premium em Depositphotos, e também imagens vectoriais e ilustrações. Blockchain design with Bitcoin logo. in Technology. Design for a blockchain featuring a net with lots of nodes and Bitcoin logos. Great for articles infographics and Here are the essentials you should know. Securely buy, store, and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top cryptocurrencies. Blockchain design with Bitcoin logo. in Technology. Design for a blockchain featuring a net with lots of nodes and Bitcoin logos. Great for articles infographics and The blockchain is a simple yet ingenious way of passing information from A to B in a fully automated and safe manner. We are following this space very closely with our research team. We are the first in the world to track all blockchain stocks, and calculate a score and ranking based on our proprietary methodology. We keep on expanding our Blockchain stock list as new stocks come up. Jan 24, 2019 · With a Blockchain Score of 74, our number three blockchain-related stock pick for 2019 is Fujitsu. Japanese technology firm Fujitsu is the world's 7th largest IT services provider and number one Blockchain Login | Blockchain | Access/Login into your account/wallet | Send, receive, store, and trade digital currencies. The world’s most trusted crypto wallet . Integrated with the Blockchain Wallet, our Exchange is a one-stop shop where you can deposit funds and place trades seamlessly in minutes. Get Started How can we help you? Popular Topics. Getting Started 2019 was a formative year for blockchain technology. 2020 is shaping up to be another interesting year as well, leading many investors to ask the question, “What are the best blockchain Nov 17, 2020 · Blockchain is a specific type of database. In this sense, Vector ITC Group, a technology consultant 100 of Spanish capital, highlights the application of Blockchain as a cyberdefense mechanism. “2018 is the year of data protection, mainly due to the arrival and application of the new General Data Protection Regulation”, highlights Iván Lastra, head of Blockchain at Vector ITC Group. ⬇ Download blockchain graphics - stock icon and vector in the best photography agency reasonable prices millions of high quality and royalty-free stock photos and images. Find blockchain stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock collection. Thousands of new, high-quality pictures added every day. Discover the world's most popular bitcoin wallet. Nov 27, 2018 Bitcoin has a carefully crafted system of checks and balances, where power is split amongst the protocol's various stakeholders (developers, Banner Blockchain vektor illustration mit icons. Transferred. Pending. Computer- Tastatur mit einer blauen Taste und der Aufschrift blockchain. Transferred. Over 20+ Bitcoin vector png images are for totally free download on Pngtree.com.previesť usd na dkk transformar de pesos a dolares americanos 6000 krw na americký dolár graf gdax btc austrálska cena bitcoinu - Hacking dish síťová čipová karta - 85 000 sleva 5 procent - Epizody velkého bratra uk online zdarma - Co je gtc + ext Blockchain Vector Graphics Posted in Graphics / Vectors This vector pack features various blockchain graphics including nodes and connector lines. These are ideal for cryptocurrency and also general networking or data sharing related projects. Examples of attack vectors are email attachments, pop-up windows, deception, chat rooms, viruses and instant messages. In most cases, programming is heavily involved and it is rare to see hardware means involved in an attack vector. Guest contributors, Judith Schuermans and Dr Sebastiaan van Herk delve into the potential power of blockchain for the healthcare sector, from validating medicines to protecting patient data. Blockchain is the technology powering many of the innovative trends making headlines the world over; just look at cryptocurrencies. A co-designed blockchain can become a solution in the value-based health and social care ecosystems as now the gatekeeper becomes the patient/citizen, that will directly access his/her continuity of care pathway. How can we help you? Popular Topics. Getting Started For an understanding of cryptocurrency transactions, checkout Coin Demo. According to the report, the use of blockchain technology for claims adjudication and billing management application is predicted to register 66.5% growth by the year 2025, owing to several issues such as errors, duplications, and incorrect billing. All of these problems can be eliminated with blockchain. blockchain, steem, cryptocurrency, hálózat, háttér, gyűjtés Clipart - Fotosearch Enhanced. k55256274 A Fotosearch segítségével pillanatok alatt rátalálhat a megfelelő képre! Keresőnkkel 67 100 000 jogdíjmentes fotó, 335 000 filmanyag, digitális videoklip, vector alapú clip art kép, clip art kép, háttérgrafika, orvosi Feb 01, 2018 · Blockchain is so closely considered bitcoin's cousin, that anything less than a 50% week is a disappointment. In October, the addition of the word "blockchain" to the name of U.K. tech firm On Download 732 blockchain free vectors. As you continue scrolling down the homepage, you will see an overview of the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin blocks. The current prices of one Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin are displayed in US dollars, along with their most recent market information. Voir le profil de Andy Bryant sur LinkedIn, le plus grand réseau professionnel mondial. Andy a 11 postes sur son profil. Consultez le profil complet sur LinkedIn et découvrez les relations de Andy, ainsi que des emplois dans des entreprises similaires. Dec 29, 2020 · Blockchain developer Rohan Pinto spent years in AI research before turning to blockchain. He agrees in theory with the idea of using blockchain for AI distribution, but sees four basic issues to overcome.

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The long-term vision for Ethereum is to power more than just financial transactions. Software developers can build applications on Ethereum, ranging from decentralized platforms for lending money to social media networks to develop and exchange content. ETH is unique in its ability to fill the role of a capital asset, consumable/transformable asset, and as a store of value. The innovative qualities of Ethereum have led to an explosion of new digital assets in the Smart Contract Platform (SCP) sector. This blog post takes a brief look at the Smart Contract Platform sector, its significance as a digital asset sector and how CoinDesk Indices is setting standards that define this sector. The SCP sector Smart contracts are computerized blockchain protocols that execute terms of a contract. Smart contracts represent computer codes ensuring that when both parties meet the terms of the contract they will execute automatically, allowing for trustless, peer-to-peer transactions. SCP assets are designed for the building of decentralized applications, layer 2 scaling systems, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and other custom protocols. Every platform has a unique open-source user and miner incentive structure that utilizes the Byzantine Fault-tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism. Every platform also utilizes a native token for the payment towards building on the platform, providing liquidity and allowing interoperability between the native token and the newly created tokens built on the platform. SCP sector is part of DACS: What does that mean? In December 2021, CoinDesk Indices launched its Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS) to set the standard for defining the industries of digital assets. Every one of the top 500 digital assets by market capitalization is assigned to an industry defined by DACS. Then, at least one industry is assigned to an industry group. Finally, at least one industry group is assigned to a sector. The SCP sector is the second-largest sector in DACS, with 88 assets representing over 35% of the digital asset market worth approximately $750 billion in market capitalization as of March 31, 2022. In addition to the SCP sector, DACS offers five other sectors: Currency, Computing, Culture & Entertainment, DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and Digitization. The six sectors in DACS represent 22 industry groups and 35 industries. Assigning industries to the SCP sector To be assigned to an industry in the SCP sector, the digital asset must be transparent, self-executing and trustless. Smart contract platforms tend to have their own blockchains and consensus mechanisms, but it is disputable how to classify tokens with smart contract capabilities, depending on whether they are used for specific applications or not intended to build dapps (decentralized applications). There are also debates on whether smart contracts need to be decentralized and whether a permissioned blockchain can be classified as smart contract platform. There are two single-industry groups: Multi-Chain/Parachain and Single Chain. The Multi-Chain/Parachain industry includes smart contract platform assets that enable multiple parallel blockchains and cross-chain interoperability. The platform can be structured with a relay chain that allows slots for external parallel chains, or parachains. The Single Chain industry includes layer 1, or base, blockchain in which all transactions are recorded on the primary distributed ledger. The Single chain allows for layer 2, or companion, scaling systems that remain tied to the primary blockchain for transactional competency. SCP sector offers investors flexibility At present, CoinDesk Indices offers two indices based on the SCP sector. The flagship index is the CoinDesk Smart Contract Platform Select Index (SCPX) that constitutes a diversified basket of smart contract platform assets with ETH making up 73% of its portfolio from its market cap weighting. However, many investors who already hold ETH do not look for that much exposure to it. Therefore, the CoinDesk Smart Contract Platform Select Ex ETH Index (SCPXX), which is just like SPCX but without ETH, offers flexibility to investors to get exposure to assets in the smart contract platform to complement their existing positions in ETH. Alternatively, SCPXX can be used simply to get exposure to the smaller assets inside the SCP sector. The two, taken together, can be analyzed for insights on performance between ETH and the rest of the sector. The digital assets in the SCP sector indices are determined by eligibility criteria for investability and liquidity that have the following requirements: · Ranked in the top 200 of the DACS universe · Listed on eligible exchanges for at least 30 days · Supported by eligible custodians · Market cap is higher than the median of the top 20 eligible assets · Median daily trading volume over the past 30 days is higher than the median of the top 20 eligible assets Shaping the digital asset economy The SCP sector tends to foster a rich environment for innovation that attracts a high level of development and resources. These platforms leverage network effects, decentralized consensus mechanisms and compatibility with various programming languages that enable creative and innovative developers to build protocols for a wide range of purposes such as decentralized exchanges, lending platforms and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces. The SCP sector serves as a foundation for the digital economy as the dapps built on these platforms attract numerous users, empowering individuals to take greater ownership over their finances and transactions and creating a burgeoning economy with a wide range of opportunities. They also facilitate a positive reinforcement cycle through the network effect. The SCPX and SCPXX indices offer investors greater transparency into the sector, offering essential intelligence needed to allow them to express their views by making decisions and executing more efficiently. To find out more about DACS and its indices, contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org. Smart Contract Platform Index (SCPX) Smart Contract Platform ex-ETH Index (SCPXX) Smart Contract Platform ex-ETH Index (SCPXX) underlies the Grayscale® Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund CoinDesk Indices, Inc. (“CDI”) does not sponsor, endorse, sell, promote or manage any investment offered by any third party that seeks to provide an investment return based on the performance of any index. CDI is neither an investment adviser nor a commodity trading adviser and makes no representation regarding the advisability of making an investment linked to any CDI index. CDI does not act as a fiduciary. A decision to invest in any asset linked to a CDI index should not be made in reliance on any of the statements set forth in this document or elsewhere by CDI. All content contained or used in any CDI index (the “Content”) is owned by CDI and/or its third-party data providers and licensors, unless stated otherwise by CDI. CDI does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, adequacy, validity or availability of any of the Content. CDI is not responsible for any errors or omissions, regardless of the cause, in the results obtained from the use of any of the Content. CDI does not assume any obligation to update the Content following publication in any form or format. The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.

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In a previous blog, I said that the question whether you need a blockchain only makes sense if you know what your goals are. If you don’t have a goal, you don’t need anything. So let’s suppose that you know your goals. How do you find out whether you need blockchains to achieve those goals? This is the question I discuss in this blog. Why another decision tree? Several authors have provided decision trees to help you decide whether you need a blockchain. Wüst & Gervais give a decision flow of six questions in an excellent academic paper. The Linux Foundation published a list of seven somewhat different questions based on experience with Hyperledger Fabric proof-of-concept projects. And a recent NIST report gives a list of seven, again slightly different questions, based on an extensive technology survey. These questionnaires all include important questions but they are not the same. That’s confusing. Are they describing different technologies? The lists are different because each includes some of the questions that become relevant after you have chosen for blockchain technology. The four core questions needed to make the decision are the same, but they are hidden in the larger lists. I give these core questions below, in the “Do you need a blockchain?” interactive decision tree. When you decide to use blockchain technology then other questions become relevant, such as which consensus algorithm to use and whether your users are anonymous. I list these questions below too, in the section “What kind of blockchain do you need?”. But first, let me explain what I mean by a few keywords. First, some terminology. A node in what follows is a computing resource that can store data and execute software, and can communicate with others nodes. A decentralized ledger (DL) is a system that consists of a set of communicating nodes, which can engage in peer-to-peer transactions. There is no intermediary that handles these transactions. The system keeps a log of these transactions in each of the nodes, and there is a consensus algorithm running in all nodes that keeps these logs mutually consistent. In some systems, all nodes contain exactly the same replicate of the complete log. But there are also systems in which different nodes may store different, overlapping parts of the log that are mutually consistent. Decentralized ledgers are usually called “distributed ledgers”. This is misleading because the essence of a decentralized ledger is not only that data is distributed across nodes, but that there is no central control. A blockchain (BC) is a decentralized ledger where the transaction log is a linked list of blocks. Each block contains a set of transactions that are considered to have taken place at the same time. Each block also contains a hash (a sort of fingerprint) of the previous block in the list. If any block is changed, its fingerprint changes, and hence the fingerprints of all subsequent blocks in the list. So if you have the fingerprint of the most recent block, you can easily check if any block in the chain has been changed. In addition to having a data structure, BCs have a consensus algorithm by which the nodes in the decentralized ledger agree on the contents of the blockchain. To ensure immutability of the transaction log, blockchains use a consensus algorithm that makes it unfeasible to change the log. Different consensus algorithms do this in a different way. The guarantee of immutability is not 100% but very strong. Beware that some companies that sell decentralized ledgers call them blockchains for marketing reasons. For example, Corda is promoted as a blockchain system even though it has a non-blockchain architecture. In my terminology, it is a decentralized ledger. A database (DB) is a system that stores centrally managed data. The data may be distributed across several nodes, or stored on one node. Databases in my terminology are centralized, which mean they have a single owner who is responsible for its functioning. Do you need a blockchain? The interactive decision tree below guides you through a few simple questions aimed at determining whether you really need any of the distinguishing features of BC technology: shared data store, multiple writers, lack of a trusted intermediary, and immutability. The decision tree is also available as a questionnaire in a PDF download. What kind of blockchain do you need? If you decide you do need a blockchain or decentralized ledger, you must answer a few more questions in order to select a particular decentralized ledger technology. I explain the questions and their possible answers in the next few sections. 1. What are the requirements for the consensus algorithm? The data stored in the nodes of a decentralized ledger must be synchronized by an algorithm. In some systems, all nodes replicate the ledger. In other systems, different nodes may contain overlapping data. But in all decentralized ledgers, the data in the nodes must be kept mutually consistent by a consensus algorithm. Possible requirements include scalability in the number of nodes, number of transactions per second, energy usage (some algorithms require a lot of computing power), the finality of transactions (is there a period during which a transaction is not yet final?), and vulnerability to fraud. A short guide to five consensus mechanisms is given here. Slightly more recent is this overview of 30+ algorithms. 2. Are all readers and writers known? Cryptocurrency systems allow their users to be anonymous. Systems used in financial institutions, by contrast, need to implement Know Your Customer regulations and require identity management. Nonpermissioned decentralized ledgers, such as ledgers for cryptocurrency payments, have no barrier to participation, and use wallets to generate pseudonymous addresses. Permissioned systems, used for example by financial institutions, use identity management systems to identify and admit participants. 3. Are all transactions public? In cryptocurrency systems, transactions are public so that anyone can check that they have not been tampered with. In the regulated payment systems managed by the financial industry, transactions are confidential and we have to trust the institutions that they do not tamper with them. For example, transactions in nonpermissioned systems such as the Bitcoin network are visible to all users. Transactions in permissioned systems, such as R3’s Corda, are visible to a small number of participants on a need-to-know basis. 4. Are transaction rules uniform across participants? All payment transactions have the same rules: The payer must own the money and not spend it twice. Other transactions, such as the sale of a company, must be crafted individually. The validity of transactions in decentralized ledgers is checked by smart contracts associated with the transaction. All transactions execute the same smart contract code, which is uniform across participants. 5. How is the data store connected to the real world? Tracing a box of grapes through the value chain requires a link between the data trace and a sequence of real-world events. To secure a relationship between a data item and a real-world event, we can use sensors (e.g. an RFID chip that measures the location of a box), physical measures (closing the box with a seal), and regulatory measures (certifying and monitoring agents who handle the box). Reflecting on these five questions, note that except the first question, they are relevant for databases too.

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Smart contract blockchains are typically public by default. This means that the ledger, the transactions, and the data contained in the smart contract are accessible to anyone. However, this is not the case with Secret Network as it’s the first blockchain that offers programmable privacy through privacy-preserving smart contracts (“Secret Contracts”). “Secret Contracts” have both public and private metadata. Private data on Secret Network is encrypted at input, state, and output and therefore never accessible to any nodes, developers, users, or everyone else.

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OIG Research Report: Octopus Protocol Octopus is an open protocol to create, exchange, settle, and manage synthetic assets. The protocol enables the issuance of synthetic tokens and their exchange through decentralized derivatives. Octopus Protocol leverages innovative technological solutions like blockchain and smart contracts to facilitate a platform for engagement with decentralized derivatives. Through a trustless architecture, Octopus seeks to offer unparalleled access and exposure to real-world assets. These synthetic assets, built on the blockchain, can represent an underlying asset in the physical world. Synthetic tokens track the real-time price of an underlying asset using oracles and give exposure without owning the real-world asset. Under the Octopus ecosystem, tokenized synthetic assets can directly be traded on a peer-to-peer network. Automated smart contracts govern the entire operation of minting and trading synthetic tokens. This removes the need to rely on a third-party intermediary with the protocol ensuring a trustless environment. Tokenization of synthetic assets on the blockchain also allows fractional ownership of the underlying asset. With blockchain, Octopus provides the necessary tools to fractionally divide an asset into desired units (tokens) and mint them on the BSC network. This allows users to raise synthetic tokens for any form of tangible or physical assets. - Unparalleled Access to Real-World Assets: Decentralized Finance allows any individual, DAO, or party to have equal access to financial tools without centralized control or third-party intermediaries. In addition, the Octopus Protocol uses the innovation of DeFi to offer unparalleled access and exposure to real-world assets in an equally accessible financial ecosystem. - Minimal Use of Oracles: Current oracle solutions are vulnerable in their design, i.e., they are susceptible to corruption. If the oracle is compromised, it can result in the manipulation of the smart contract. To minimize the loophole of corruption within the oracles, Octopus Protocol is designed to minimize the usage of oracles. By providing off-chain data for blockchain transactions in an incentivized environment, Octopus reduces the reliance on oracles and increases security within its ecosystem. - Limitless Design Possibilities: Octopus allows users to create a basket of tokens to diversify cryptocurrency investment portfolios and minimize financial risks. The basket is represented by a synthetic asset that calculates the overall price of all the instruments. In addition, the Protocol allows any participant to access financial contracts or derivatives from any part of the world through synthetic tokens. - Customized Derivative Contracts: Customized financial contracts have never been available to individuals as the costs for doing so have been restraining. However, Octopus Protocol facilitates contracts that fit personal circumstances along with preferred investment instruments. - Non-Custodial: Synthetic tokens provide accessibility and leverage to the asset without going through the tedious process of owning the asset. They are also more affordable to hold as compared to real-world asset-backed tokens. Synthetic tokens also provide censorship resistance (non-custodial) which asset-backed tokens cannot offer due to custodian restrictions. - Governance: Octopus Protocol is governed by anyone who owns $OPS tokens, Octopus’s native currency, fairly and transparently. All OPS token holders can propose a change to the protocol or vote on existing proposals. - Trustless Architecture: Octopus Protocol leverages the innovation of blockchain and automated smart contracts to remove the factor of dependency on third-party intermediaries. Instead, all operations are managed by a pre-programmed network of smart contracts, which are automatically executable. - Affordable Solution: Modern DeFi derivative solutions restrict innovation by demanding a higher deposit for collateral exchange for the issuance of tokens. Octopus provides an affordable solution to mint tailored synthetic assets by reducing the requirement for a high (amount) of collateral. $OPS is the utility token of the Octopus protocol ecosystem. $OPS token serves multiple utility purposes in the ecosystem. - Governance: $OPS tokens are used by participants to govern the Octopus Protocol, ensuring consensus in decisions in a decentralized network. - Staking: Buyers and sellers can lock their $OPS tokens as a part of staking operations and receive rewards for committing deposits. This locks up $OPS and reduces circulating supply. - Engagement: OPS tokens are used to incentivize actions across the Octopus Protocol ecosystem in several ways. They are a means to internally access the Octopus system for engaging with its products and services.

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President of the Professional Association of Moroccan Brands In order to ensure better traceability of the production chain and achieve more credibility both in Morocco and abroad, a process change must take place. Adil Lamnini, president of the professional association of Moroccan brands, launches a shout from the heart to cross a new course. The solution would go through the creation of a blockchain. Maintenance. The current situation does not favor the competitiveness of Moroccan products internationally. But to boost Made in Morocco, during your intervention at RDV du Made in Morocco, you insisted on the creation of a blockchain. What is your theory? It is important to better understand what Blockchain is because it tends to get confused or associated with cryptocurrency. Blockchain is a distributed database where records of all transactions and digital events that have been performed and shared between its users are recorded since it was created. Each record contained in this database has been carefully verified by consensus among the majority of participants in the system. Once entered, the information cannot be deleted because each block contains the secure and verifiable history of the transactions performed. The successive and automatic exchanges performed by the users are recorded in this database in the form of blocks of transactions. It is for this reason that we are talking about blockchain. To put it simply, it is a technology for storing and transmitting information in the form of a database, which has the special character of being shared simultaneously between all its users, and which is not dependent on any central body, and it insists I on. Aside from the wide range of actions, as opposed to cryptocurrency, speed and security are significant assets. Specifically, how is it contextualized? To better simplify, let us take the example of the agri-food industry, which is the first contributor (approximately 14%) to GDP ahead of tourism and industry, and which is a complex and international ecosystem with many actors involved in the value chain. : farmers, producers, suppliers, distributors, consumers or even regulators … Each player has its own processes and internal processes and offers very little transparency to its counterparts. In this context, blockchain technology makes it possible to offer a system where every step of the production cycle can be mapped in real time and recorded in a safe and unchanging way. Thus, all actors in the sector can know the path of the products and the involvement of each of their partners, and the control of the conformity of the production cycle by regulators and external auditors is immediate. As a reminder and in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 28-07 on food safety, production, processing, processing, packaging, storage, conditioning and labeling of any food product for the purpose of placing it on the market is required to first obtain a health approval issued by ONSSA. This procedure is now considered archaic, administratively restrictive and suffers from a lack of credibility with both operators and consumers. That is why we call for a reform of the law and a modernization and digitization of ONSSA’s processes without delay. Because at a time when we are promoting our Made in Morocco productions internationally and following the experiences we have learned from the Covid epidemic, we must be able to guarantee that actors in the supply chain throughout the product life cycle fill the blockchain with information about the products they manufacture, process or distribute. At the end of the cycle, the consumer can, by flashing a unique and tamper-proof QR code, find all the information about his product. The need to reduce these costs and migrate to a 100% digital process to speed up procedures and reduce errors is real and it is now possible with the adoption of a Made in Morocco blockchain. In addition, this solution will make it possible to offer more transparency to customers and ensure better monitoring of the product in the production chain, while promoting the quality of Made in Morocco products to consumers both in the Moroccan market and abroad internationally. What steps need to be taken to make this transition a success? In addition to the technical dimension, the implementation of a blockchain solution is a real transformation project that requires some openness to partners outside the company. We must therefore accept co-construction with an ecosystem of actors, varied, new and different. That is why, at the level of the Professional Association of Moroccan Brands (APMM), we are launching this appeal to the Head of Government and to the various ministries associated with the defense and promotion of the competitiveness of our local production, to certainly dare digital 4.0, to reform the administrative archaism of our control bodies and finally migrate to a sleek, smart and open business model, such as that already in place in Europe, the United States and Asia. Made in Morocco 4.0 “it’s now” or never. Maryam Ouazani / ECO Inspirations

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Blockchain technology has introduced new methods of thinking about asset security and stores-of-value. Let’s look at a few instances of what we mean. Bitcoin, which runs on blockchain technology, is a secure cryptocurrency that allows users to trade and use it as a method of payment. They can also use the crypto for things like gambling on the best crypto casino, for shopping online, or even purchasing groceries. Ethereum, the second-biggest blockchain, allows developers to create dApps using smart contracts. Its applications include rental agreements, casino games, and many others. Flow allows developers and others to create NFTs and deploy smart contracts on a highly scalable blockchain. Here, we will discuss what is Flow, its features, and its benefits. What Is Flow Blockchain? Dapper Labs developed CryptoKitties in 2017. This NFT (Non-Fungible Token) project had so many users that it congested and ultimately stalled the Ethereum blockchain. They realized that Ethereum could not verify transactions fast enough, so they created a new blockchain: Flow. Essentially, Dapper Labs developed a method to better scale the blockchain. The developers employed a vertical separation of labor on the network. This means that they split the work needed to verify and publish new blocks on the network. This in contrast to a horizontal separation of labor, which splits up different transactions. Sharding is the most popular method of achieving this. Dapper Labs developed Flow specifically for large crypto games and NFT collectibles. NFT projects like NBA Topshot have already proven successful on Flow. Users can collect, sell, and trade collectible NBA moments. They are similar to trading cards, but they are digital and unique. Dapper Labs identified four pillars of Flow, which differentiate it from other major blockchains. These are Multi-role architecture, Resource Orientated Programming, Developer ergonomics, and Consumer onboarding. Ethereum allows the formulation of smart contracts and, accordingly, dApps (Decentralized Apps). At the same time, Bitcoin is the most trustless blockchain for transactions. Hence, Ethereum and Bitcoin have their advantages with certain aspects of blockchain technology like holding a store-of-value (BTC) or for autonomous and decentralized app development. However, both blockchains suffer from scalability issues. Flow attempts to remedy this. What Is Flow’s Multi-Role Architecture? Popular blockchains see resources on their network as homogeneous. This means that each node on the blockchain needs to fulfill operational tasks like verifying and adding new blocks to the network. Flow, on the other hand, separates these operational tasks. It treats resources as heterogeneous. So the blockchain sees network bandwidth, computation power, and storage capabilities as separate nodes. This means that one node could be executing a new block while another node is still verifying a previous block. What Are Flow Node Roles? There are four different kinds of nodes on Flow. These are Collector, Consensus, Execution, and Verification nodes. According to Dapper Labs’ research, heterogeneous nodes improve throughput by a factor of 56 compared to blockchains utilizing full nodes. Furthermore, the network separates Consensus and Execution nodes with the principle of deterministic operations. Subjective operations do not have a deterministic result, which means that nodes need to reach a consensus to get results. In comparison, objective operations have a deterministic result, which does not require a consensus. A subjective operation on a blockchain would be nodes reaching a consensus on which sets of transactions to add to the next block on the network. An objective operation would be executing a token transfer between accounts. Collector nodes receive transaction submissions from external agents. These nodes form clusters of equal size and stake on the network. Clusters collect transaction submissions and place them into collections. Each node in the cluster introduces external transaction submissions to the cluster. Each cluster generates collections one at a time, and before they create a new collection, they send the current collection to the Consensus Nodes. Accordingly, when the Collector Nodes reach a consensus on a collection, it is called a guaranteed collection. Consensus nodes maintain the chains on the network and add new blocks. The Consensus Nodes run a BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus algorithm to decide which set of collections will be included in the next block on the network. Moreover, a block of ordered collections that have already undergone the BFT consensus algorithm is a finalized block. Consensus Nodes also need to seal blocks. This includes creating a block seal. This is a commitment to the execution result after a block has been executed and verified. They are also responsible for slashing malicious and faulty nodes. Execution nodes have to scale the computation power of the blockchain. They execute finalized blocks from the Consensus nodes. These nodes need to publish the execution states that result from the process. These are called Execution Receipts. Furthermore, Execution Nodes have to provide important information to the Verification Nodes, so they divide the block computations into chunks. Each Execution node publishes the information from each chunk into their Execution Receipts. Verification Nodes are in charge of verifying Execution Nodes published results. Each Verification Node only checks fractions of the chunks in Execution Receipts. These nodes publish their approval of execution results as a Result Approval. By dividing the verification into chunks, many Verification Nodes can check chunks from different blocks parallelly. Thus, improving verification speed. But all the Verification Nodes need to check all the blocks added to the network. What Is Flow’s Resource-Orientated Programming? The Flow blockchain deploys a resource-orientated programming language: Cadence. It is based on a new ownership model related to Linear Types, called resources. They are a new method for showing digital asset ownership and defining it in a programming language. This allows developers to create NFTs and track them using Cadence. Furthermore, Cadence is easy to read and has fewer runtime errors. It also allows developers to include pre and post-conditions when running functions. Accordingly, this makes Cadence easier to learn and audit. And most importantly, it makes creating artifacts for Flow more efficient. Dapper Labs recommends tools for developers. These tools help developers begin working on the blockchain. Next, they recommend a Visual Studio Code Extension that allows developers to test their smart contracts and check for errors using Cadence natively. Moreover, developers can use the Flow Playground GUI to learn Cadence without any additional setup. What Is Flow’s Developer Ergonomics? Dapper Labs introduced tools to help developers get started on Flow. They have also given developers easier methods of implementing smart contracts on the network and error logging. Upgradeable Smart Contracts The first method is upgradeable smart contracts. Initially, the Ethereum developers did not allow developers to change smart contract code once it was launched on the network. They did this to prevent malicious conduct in smart contract conditions. In practice, however, many smart contract code iterations contained problems that affected the entire network. Dapper Labs allows developers to release their smart contracts in a beta state on the mainnet. They can update the smart contract code without needing to build their own updating protocols into the smart contract. Users can see if a smart contract is in a beta state or not to decide between finalized or beta smart contracts. Once developers complete their updates, they can finalize the smart contract. After that, the code becomes immutable. Many define blockchain speed as the time it takes for a transaction to reach finality. This means that the transaction is permanently included in the blockchain. Bitcoin takes about 1 hour. Ethereum takes about 6 minutes, but Flow takes seconds. It allows users to receive feedback on their transaction after the Consensus Nodes assign their transaction to a block. They can accept a locally verified transaction or wait until the sealed transactions are included in the blockchain. Finality takes around 10 seconds. What Is Flow’s Consumer Onboarding? Flow makes it easier for consumers to use and create applications on the network. First, Flow allows human-readable security messages. These messages inform users what permissions they give for transaction authorization. Also, the messages notify users of what kind of changes a transaction can make. Additionally, Users can become node operators with relatively cheap hardware. Consensus and Verification Nodes do not need lots of computing power because the operations are divided into chunks. These node operators also receive rewards depending on their stake in the network and the work they have done. Lastly, the Flow network allows companies, brands, and influencers to engage with their fans directly. With the use of NFTs and the scalability of the blockchain, these content partners can sell their digital assets with built-in ownership tracking. Flow has a multi-role architecture that vastly improves the scalability of the blockchain without compromising security. Furthermore, developers have more flexibility when it comes to creating smart contracts with Cadence, a resource-orientated programming language. They can also update their smart contracts on the mainnet. Lastly, the platform allows content partners to utilize the blockchain to create NFTs and actively track digital asset ownership.

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Episode 32 - Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) Blockchains allow seamless and transparent distribution of tokens and these tokens can represent pretty much anything. It can be something of a financial value, identity, or right to vote that can be tokenized on the blockchain. Recall that to update the state of a blockchain, users send signed transactions, and based on the validity of these transactions the updates are applied to the blockchain. When an update requires multiple users to approve it, we use multi-signature transactions and wallets. Now let’s combine these two concepts and imagine an organization’s entire governance based on a blockchain, where users have the right to vote by sending transactions. We can design an organization by programming the decision-making logic in the smart contracts. This logic can then be used to govern the finances, strategy, and other important aspects of an organization in a fully transparent and decentralized manner. Users can have voting rights based on the tokens they own. The voting can be done using any of the popular approaches — a majority, supermajority, delegation, etc. The decisions made using this process can be applied automatically by distributing funds in specific account, or approving strategy and in many other ways. These organizations that could function autonomously based on the business logic or governance rules programmed in blockchains are called Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). It is also worth pointing out that while the governance process of DAOs is more inclusive and transparent, it is still a challenge to apply the decisions made by a DAO in the outside world in a legal and enforceable manner.

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Start-ups and seed investors nowadays are likely to use Convertible Notes and Simple Agreements for Future Equity as methods of seed financing because the two options are fast, simple and cost effective in comparison with traditional seed financing. Both options offer start-ups an opportunity to raise capital and investors an option to gain shares of a promising startup. However, while both options share some similarities, entrepreneurs and investors should consider which options are more preferable to them. Trust In DAOs In 2013, Y Combinators created a new form of agreement named “Simple Agreement for Future Equity,” also known as “SAFE,” a contract that allows startups or companies to raise investment capital in the seed rounds. A seed round refers to a series of investments in which a limited number of investors “seed” a new company. This money is often used to support initial market research and early product development. In this agreement, the investor is granted future equity rights in the company that triggers liquidity events. NBA Top Shots, a series of digital collectibles based on basketball video highlights, has seen a tremendous rise in popularity since its inception, cementing the use case of NFTs and bringing the valuation of Dapper Labs, the company behind it, to a whopping $7.5 billion. This feat is impressive but understandable given that a LeBron James Top Shot alone recently sold for over $387,000. NFTs are one of the fastest-growing applications of blockchain. At the same time, eSports is a fast-developing segment of the gaming industry. Recently we have seen an interesting overlap between the two. This article explores the legal nuances related to eSports-inspired NFTs. The Central Bank of the UAE (“CBUAE”) Large Value Payment Systems (“LVPS”) Regulation (the “Regulation”) (Link) came into force on the 10 February 2021. This Regulation was published alongside the Retail Payment System (“RPS”) regulation with the aim of promoting a robust financial infrastructure and building the essential framework for financial stability and consumer protection in the UAE. This week, the Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE) released the Retail Payment Systems Regulation (RPS) (Regulation) (link) which governs RPS, defined to include systems which handle low-value, high volume payments such as cheques, credit transfers, direct debit, card payments, amongst other things. This regulation comes in consonance with the SVF regulations, the Crypto-Assets Guidelines and the Large Value Payment Systems Regulations. Together, these instruments indicate that UAE is moving quick to establish itself as a leader in blockchain, crypto and fintech. Here are the top 10 takeaways from the Regulation. This week the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) released its ‘Administrative Decision No. (11) of 2021 concerning Guidance for Crypto Asset Regulations’ (link) (or Crypto Asset Guidance/ Guidance) which throws light on, and clarifies the application of the SCA’s Board of Directors’ Decision No. 23/Chairman of 2020 concerning Crypto Assets Activities Regulation (link) (or the Crypto Assets Regulation/ Regulation), which was released late last year. In a ground-breaking move to address the rapid technological advancements of stored value products and services, the Central Bank of UAE has repealed and replaced the ‘Regulatory Framework for Stored Values and Electronic Payment Systems’ (2016) to implement the ‘Stored Value Facilities (SVF) Regulations’. This regulation is aimed at ensuring the secure and efficient governance of the digital payments industry and stored value facilities. One of the many solutions makes a classification between different blockchains on the basis of permission levels for different categories of participants. In this regard, a blockchain technology can generally be divided into two broad categories: Public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum and permissioned blockchains like Hyperledger, R3 Corda etc. Permissioned blockchains can be further grouped into two categories on the basis of the number of entities governing the system. Today’s addresses the need of having a validly executed and legally recognised Will, in the UAE. Please view our informative, short video enclosed. By creating a solid foundation for your estate planning, including that of executing a last Will, future additions or changes to your family’s circumstances won’t feel as daunting when the time comes. After all, life never slows down and no-one is invincible. Through means of a Will, you can: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE! HAVE YOUR SAY TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY AT A TIME OF HEARTACHE. We, at KARM, will be happy to assist in advising & guiding you as to best give effect to your testamentary wishes. Please feel free to reach out to our team of professionals to set up a virtual consultation, at your convenience. We look forward to connecting with you. On June 5th SEBI released a cirular to introduce a framework for “Regulatory Sandbox”. Under this sandbox framework, entities regulated by SEBI that shall grant certain facilities and flexibilities to experiment with FinTech solutions in a live environment and on limited set of real customers for a limited time frame. These features shall be fortified with necessary safeguards for investor protection and risk mitigation. Some of the basic blockchain applications such as system of records and identity management is required by most large-scale organisations. Moreover, the blockchain is now being implemented to offer Software as a Service applications to enterprises. This is being done through providing services like tracking and traceability of products. Following this, J.P Morgan has introduced an enterprise version of the ethereum labelled as “Quorum” which has resolved concerns around privacy and scalability. Quorum is offered as a blockchain as a service offering. Ethereum has also innovated to address all issues which are being faced by enterprises and has formulated an Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (“EEA”) to work on further developments and satisfy all requirements of large-scale organisations. On a fateful September morning the world woke up to the news of WeWork pulling the plug on its IPO. WeWork, the co-working unicorn startup, whose IPO was one of the highly anticipated public offerings of 2019 saw an abrupt drop in its valuation. “For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.” - Jonathan Swift The two poles of centralization and decentralization have been as old as the human civilization in itself. Capitalism & Socialism, Presidential and Parliamentarian are all the forms of centralization/ decentralization debate that have existed for times immemorial. What are ‘Smart Contracts?’ When it comes to startups, a general perception is that it needs to be in a developed country where all the resources are available. In truth, that misses the point: startups can begin anywhere, and it's often the countries with the greatest needs that present the biggest opportunities. The United Arab Emirates has been one of the few jurisdictions, which has been supportive of the technology. Recently the UAE Government announced the UAE Blockchain Strategy 2021 which aims at capitalising on blockchain technology to transform 50 per cent of government transactions into the blockchain platform by 2021. UAE also happens to be the only jurisdiction around the world to have four regulators acting as incubators to blockchain projects and start-ups. Much has been spoken about the disruption and the innovation brought about by the cryptocurrencies and blockchain in general. But amongst other things, a new technology almost always disrupts and affects the conventional methods of managing a workforce. First things first, let’s admit - starting-out is bold. While all of us have heard that most of the start-ups fail with varying percentages in different jurisdictions, there is always hope that your start-up won’t follow suit. As lawyers, this is what we hope for, for you. To stay updated, subscribe to our newsletter

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Even if the stylish web connects us like under no circumstances proper ahead of, 1 subject that younger generations have by no means in fact seasoned is the sensation of authentic privacy. Much more mature generations have overpassed what lifestyles was once like ahead of our with reference to each and every imagined and motion ended up tracked. Net3 envisions an open, trustless, permissionless internet the place shoppers can have interaction with every different peer-to-peer with out the will of offering up possession command, privacy or depending on intermediaries. Elementary that eyesight, blockchains are an individual of probably the most the most important gear. They take away the require for depended on 3rd occasions and help to create a instant courting involving customers and supplier suppliers, recording the procedures of engagement on immutable ledgers or even storing direct interactions among them. Blockchains additionally necessarily reconfigure the constructions and tool balances in information ownership. With blockchains, women and men can now bypass centralized internet websites and top priced intermediaries and have interaction immediately with each and every person different with close-to-conclude encryption. Other people nowadays should buy belongings those as apartments or operates of artwork, get entry to public strategies, and participate in significant-amount choices. Moreover, the keep watch over and management of those processes are considerably more effective applying a decentralized platform the place by way of 3rd events are not able to get right to use information with the exception of members concur to permit it. Which is the concept that. The reality of blockchain privateness In reality, nowadays’s blockchains are “pseudonymous,” wherein finish customers are made up our minds by way of an alphanumeric string of folks referred to as a neighborhood necessary. However, associations in regards to the task in a transaction and metadata can normally undermine pseudonymity. This renders one of the most primary proposed added advantages of blockchain pointless and most probably exposes delicate information to all members in a community. We may no longer know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, however we will be able to stay observe of the transactions related with their addresses. Blockchain forensics firms, like CipherTrace and Elliptic, continuously use the virtual ledger to track monetary workout at the blockchain. Related: Internet 3. wishes way more folks, no longer further buyers A apparently unrelated phenomenon has been lately spotted within the ever-expanding whole global of blockchain-based most commonly marketplaces, precisely the place trades, evident to miners, change into topic to “front-working.” Regardless that this doesn’t have so much to do with privateness at 1st glance, this type of attack happens when a miner is in a position to cross in the course of the plain-text transactions submitted on-chain and insert their have transactions upfront of finish customers, having the best provides and leaving the remainder of us with much less price. The maximal-extractable worth (MEV) refers back to the overall of price that miners can suck out of the process by way of front-working — worth that customers would in a different way obtain. Taking into consideration the truth that January 2020, miners have extracted loads of loads of hundreds of U.S. kilos in price from Ethereum finish customers. Clearly, this a real drawback the trade calls for to take care of. This begs the query: Precisely the place are the blockchain layers that offer unique privacy? Comparable: Browser cookies don’t seem to be consent: The brand new path to privacy following EU main points law fall quick As elements in this day and age stand, the implementation of privateness has no longer been given the concern this is required or deserved. As a substitute, the blockchain staff decided on different priorities — particularly, addressing the scalability, pace and price ticket troubles which have been holding blockchain once more from mass adoption. The opposite for Web3 privateness in the past exists It isn’t simply willful carelessness, of program. There’s a just right technological reason why that internet techniques recently are not able to execute on present blockchain architectures. Given that all contributors are recently confused to re-execute all transactions in get to validate the situation in their ledger, with reference to each and every corporate on a blockchain is correctly time-sharing a unmarried, finite, world-wide compute supply. But every other goal that privateness has no longer been prioritized is that it’s fairly tough to guarantee. Traditionally, privateness apparatus had been slow and inefficient, and producing them way more scalable is in reality exhausting get the task accomplished. However simply because privateness is difficult to put in force does no longer symbolize it shouldn’t be a priority. The preliminary transfer is to make privateness more straightforward for the shopper. Attaining privacy in crypto must in reality no longer call for clunky workarounds, shady packages or a deep technology of subtle cryptography. Blockchain networks, which come with just right settlement platforms, will have to help non-compulsory privateness that operates as without difficulty as clicking a button. Blockchain applied sciences is poised to respond those calls with protection movements that assurance utmost privateness with social responsibility. 0-expertise proofs (ZKPs) and secure multiparty computation (sMPC) are two applied sciences that may revolutionize the best way we understand web privacy and permit us get again keep an eye on above the personas we create on-line. Hooked up: The crypto trade royally screwed up privacy Each choices will permit for the web to develop into a house the place our delicate wisdom is launched best with our acceptance. However, each and every resolution has its have disadvantages. Kinks in blockchain privateness When ZKPs let for basic transfers, they don’t allow multi-person interactions. And while sMPC makes it imaginable for for more than a few folks, it may be prohibitively slow by itself. The transparent reaction is to few the 2 applied sciences collectively to terminate out the pitfalls and make a hastily, secure, remarkably non-public framework from which to segment All over the world web3 duties. Possibly the correct solution to seem at internet privacy nowadays is that we’re ultimately on the end of an enormous log jam. The holiday spot — a better type of privateness the place by way of the shopper is in command — was once not at all in query, however there have been different fish to fry. The jam was once brought on by way of a very easy to grasp goal on fixing scalability, speed and price, leaving means too small electrical energy and fiscal funding to take on privateness. However that’s the previous. This write-up does no longer include monetary funding ideas or ideas. With reference to each and every funding resolution and buying and selling shift is composed of danger, and audience ought to accomplish their very own find out about when generating a conclusion. The points of interest, emotions and perspectives expressed listed here are the writer’s by myself and don’t essentially replicate or symbolize the perspectives and viewpoints of Cointelegraph. Adam Gagol is the co-founder of Net3 venture studio Cardinal Cryptography and of Aleph 0, a Swiss group supplying a scalable privateness-improving good contract infrastructure supreme for enterprise-quality apps. Adam earned a Ph.D. in mathematics for his paintings on functions of probabilistic approaches in combinatorics. Within the blockchain house, Adam’s achievements with Cardinal Cryptography contain designing Aleph 0’s consensus protocol, which was once peer-reviewed by way of the Affiliation for Computing Apparatus in 2019.

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Founded in 2017 by SmartContract, Chainlink is a decentralized network of nodes that provide data and information from off-blockchain sources to onblockchain smart contracts via oracles. An oracle is a software acting as an intermediary (the “middle-man”) between smart contracts and the off-blockchain data providers. Connecting outside information sources to smart contracts is vital to the use cases of smart contracts and blockchains. The challenge of getting off-chain information (e.g. financial data) on-chain in a reliable, trust-minimized manner is generally known as the "oracle problem" and was largely unsolved until the formation of Chainlink. Chainlink’s token (often also called Link) is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token used to pay for the services of Chainlink nodes providing off-blockchain data to smart contracts. Chainlink allows smart contract to connect to the outside world providing reliable, tamper-proof inputs and outputs for complex smart contracts on any blockchain.

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Bitcoin is a P2P network made up of equal nodes which all function in the same way. From a strictly technical point of view, a Bitcoin full node is a piece of software that is built according to the Bitcoin protocol and fully verifies all its rules. The most widely used software is Bitcoin Core, which is the latest version of the original software developed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. To date there are more than 10,000 public nodes with Bitcoin Core, while the other software used for Bitcoin network nodes are much fewer: 69 with Bitcore, 35 with Bitcoin Knots, 21 with bcoin, 18 with Bitcoin UASF, 7 with Bitcoin Unlimited and one each for btc1 and Bitcoin Classic. However, these are the public nodes, i.e. those that can be reached online by anyone, but it is estimated that there are many more private ones, i.e. installed to be used only by the operator. Bitcoin nodes have a fundamental task: to store the blockchain. The Bitcoin blockchain is a file of about 410GB that contains all the Bitcoin blocks with all the transactions that have been recorded on the blockchain since its inception on 3 January 2009. All nodes keep the exact same file, though each one updates it independently by adding new blocks that are mined by miners. When a miner succeeds in mining a block, he communicates it to all nodes, which verify it and, if correct, add it to their own blockchain file that they store. Sometimes, in rare cases, different nodes add different blocks, but only those that have more blocks concatenated afterwards are considered valid. In theory, anyone can make their own software to manage a Bitcoin node, as long as it is compatible with the protocol. The protocol is public, so anyone can download it and produce compatible software. However, it is much easier to download and install Bitcoin Core. Installing a Bitcoin node is very easy, but it is also a lengthy process, both because once it is installed it has to download all 410GB of the blockchain, and more importantly because it has to verify, one by one, that the nearly 690,000 blocks conform to the protocol. The validation process is not very fast, and since there are many hundreds of thousands of blocks to verify, it can sometimes take days. The task of Bitcoin’s nodes is to verify and guard the blockchain. In 2009, when the first block on the Bitcoin blockchain was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, there was a single piece of software, simply called Bitcoin by Nakamoto, which acted as both a node and a wallet, and which was also used to mine blocks. Over time, however, mining became increasingly difficult, so special mining software was developed. At the same time, it became evident that wallets were needed that did not have to download and verify the entire blockchain, and so stand-alone wallet software was born. The end result of this evolution was Bitcoin Core, which is a software that only acts as a node, although it also integrates a wallet. Those who do not need to verify the entire blockchain, and trust the verifications made by the other ten thousand nodes, can download a stand-alone wallet to carry out transactions. Miners, on the other hand, use different software to mine.

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E-commerce has brought speed, scale and a burst of options that were never possible before. Imagine what happens when decentralisation slices some monopolies and passes the jam bottle back to the small guy Destiny is a weird thing. Post-it, Kevlar, Slinky, Laughing gas – so many inventions that find a new fate and future that was initially not remotely-near to the purpose or question at hand. Blockchain is on its path to finding something huge and serendipitous too, and sooner or later, the world will have something that we would all wonder upon – ‘how come we were living without it till now’. Until that missing tooth of peanut-butter makes its appearance, consider names like ApolloX, Wibson and Flipz. In fact, forget the names and peer into what they are up to. The idea of making commerce decentralised and empowering-for-individuals (and not the Big Cheese) may have sounded ridiculous till now but when you mix up data privacy with a good toss of blockchain – well, the line of ants does get rearranged. Retail to Detail to Me-tail Let’s first look into the very premise of a blockchain-based e-commerce marketplace. It’s been long watching, and enduring, centralised players using the possibility of wreaking unfair treatment on buyers and merchants alike. With great power, comes the temptation of great abuse too. But the hot iron that blockchain is, it can flatten all power ladders. Now it is not hard to imagine a marketplace where no one sneaks into someone else’s data, overcharges shoppers, hold back hard-earned money of merchants, colonises an ecosystem and uses the scale as an excuse to dominate the industry in an unreasonable manner. No Bread-Crumbs Here If you look at Apollox (where beta version and testing are underway), its emphasis is on challenging “monopolistic intermediaries”. It plans to do that with a protocol to ease things for e-tailers and with independent web stores, marketplaces and reward mechanisms for users. The issues it has taken aim against are unfair pricing, hidden costs, data abuse and the misuse of power. Blockchain can make it easier for merchants to access users without parting away their profits with big e-commerce platforms. At one point, it has even claimed it can decrease the costs associated with e-commerce by 40 per cent. The use of tools like attribution protocol and payment protocol is intended as ways to bypass the dead-ends that exist in current platforms. The idea is to make connections between the right buyer and user fast and then enabling fast transactions too. Then there was Flipz that brought in a smart e-commerce platform with blockchain smart contracts. Its co-founder Alexei Bobylev had described the initiative as an ‘a unique rating system of vendors based on blockchain technology, and transactions without commission.’ The pain points it targeted were the plight of smaller vendors while ensuring the absence of commission and intrusive ads. It had reckoned that as much 50 per cent of the cost of a product built up thanks to the promotional costs incurred by the vendor. To solve this, a foolproof rating system – insulated from the influence of money and bolstered with smart contracts – got devised to help users to find the best products on their own. If we comb through the World FinTech Report 2019 from Capgemini and Efma, we will, incidentally, notice the progress and challenges of Open X, an integrated marketplace, as well. Anirban Bose, CEO of Capgemini’s Financial Services had explained in a report announcement that- “In Open X, there will be seamless sharing of data, and ecosystem partners will be able to collaborate in a far more comprehensive way. Our research suggests that banks and FinTechs need to prepare themselves for a more radical change than many previously anticipated.” Vincent Bastid, Secretary General of Efma (that provides insights to ban and insurance companies) had also underlined here that “In the era of Open X, ecosystem players will have to work together more effectively than they have previously.” But what also came up is the possibility that integrated firms are likely to struggle to match the time-to-market of an ecosystem of specialists and find it challenging to meet the unique demands from customers. A really-radical shift with the new marketplaces would be about data. Wibson, for instance, stresses that it does not collect or store data. “Wibson is a marketplace where individuals benefit directly from managing their data and making it available to buyers. It is an open, market-driven system where the buyer sets the price they want to pay and the individual data sellers can choose to accept or decline the offer based on the price, the use of the data, the company, etc.” Rodrigo Irarrazaval, Wibson Marketing Manager explains. Splendid! What are we waiting for then? Should we not be, already, getting our milk from the sheep barn tucked in some dreamy meadows away? No Aisles – A Different Maze? There is no absolute decentralisation, reminds Meng Liu, analyst, Forrester attacking the very foundation of any of these off-the-rack marketplaces. “In terms of blockchain, either a consortium blockchain or a public blockchain is still centralised at a certain level. For the individual, I don’t see their data would be more easy, scalable and monetisable and secure with decentralised technologies.” In the reckoning of Dr Rajkumar Palanna, a digital transformation expert, strong stable and trusted networks are critical for success in this new paradigm. So the ‘network effect’ is going to be again crucial for the success of such marketplaces. As outlandish as it may sound, eventually players can distort the concept the way Facebook etc. twisted the potent powers of the Internet. Dr Palanna does not dismiss that possibility. “With the power of scaling that can be achieved by technology, it is possible that eventually, players with tech power will twist things to their favour.” In Liu’s prognosis as well, we should already be worried about the creation of new “kings” either like tech giants who built the blockchain-as-a-service platforms or even cryptocurrency exchanges. “There is more hype than pragmatic thought in this space.” Saxophone Plays Ka-Ching? Irarrazaval recognises the need for a balanced and fair marketplace that benefits both buyers and sellers and makes managing data easy. “Those are the main principles we are always working to deliver on.” Maybe Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bring in the big answer current e-commerce space suffers from. AI can create more incremental and measurable revenue increase and cost cut, avers Liu but also notes that blockchain’s impact on the real business case is vague and more difficult to measure. “Many blockchain projects in China are having all the technologies in hand but struggling to find partners onboard or practical business cases. AI is a stronger disruptor in finance and e-commerce and can have a more direct impact on customer experience such as chatbot, facial recognition, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), which can give the customer a strong touch for emerging technologies. Blockchain is more focusing on improving the back-office operational efficiency and more relevant to B2B, which has a longer time to build trust with customers.” D-Commerce should present us new solutions not new problems. In the World FinTech Report 2019 that is dotted with hopes of Open X transforming industry norms and assumptions, it is also indicated that within the Open X marketplace, banks will need to enhance their integrated (traditional) model first and then focus on areas of specialized strength. It shows that industry players are looking at two potential monetisation models for APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) – revenue-sharing (which 60 per cent of banks and 70 per cent of FinTechs think is feasible) and API access fees (supported by 46 per cent of banks and 55 per cent of FinTechs). As to how would monetisation flow, and how ‘financial incentives’ would work while these players balance privacy and control for a data owner, Dr Palanna opines that financial incentives will come from non-traditional methods. “Every generation of new technologies will change the monetising methods. Old methods morph and new (several unpredictable) ones emerge.” APIs, which allow third parties to access bank systems and data in a controlled environment, will be catalysts to creating the Open X marketplace, as per the World Financial Report from Capgemini and Efma. It observes that – ‘While customer data is already widely shared and leveraged in the industry, standardised APIs are not commonplace. Although requirements and regulations are complex, standardisation will help to reduce fraud, improve interoperability, increase speed to market, and enhance scalability.’ The market is gaining speed and this is the right time to pour in cognizance for the questions hidden on the top shelves for now. It was October 2018 when ApolloX front-end system beta version release came and by April 2019 ApolloX decentralised marketplace started test operation. The goal by 2020 is for ApolloX to become a fully decentralised service. Other players are making the ascent with similar speedometers. We are so close to bringing the bread and bacon home again. Past all obstacles. And confectionery houses. However, it is a quest that will need both Hansel and Gretel to be patient, strong and stoic to temptations. Just follow the crumbs right.

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How to distinguish between Blockchain Networks? Much gets lost in the current “bubblicious” and exhilarating world of cryptocurrencies. In some cases, the “get-rich-quick” stories are reminiscent of the California gold rush. Although these are exciting times, an investor in blockchain technologies, whether a miner or crypto-trader; must ask themselves two critical questions: 1. What problem does the blockchain solve (value proposition) and its impact on global markets? 2. Where are there opportunities of inefficiencies in the current system that blockchain technology can replace? In other words understanding what differentiates one blockchain platform from another is extremely critical, especially from an investor’s point of view. Much of the conversation these days about blockchain and cryptocurrencies are often misguided and centered around misinformation. However in this post, let’s begin to explore some of the value proposition of the blockchain and understand what drives the levers of value in this new paradigm by answering the two questions above. Question # 1: What problem does the blockchain solve (value proposition) and the impact on global markets? As I wrote in the previous post, blockchain technology is positioned to disrupt and up-end today’s current e-commerce business model at its foundation. First of all, blockchain technology is a displacement of the current business paradigm of trusted-third party models (TTP). Blockchain is a technology that enables distributed "proof-based” business model. In trusted-third party models; an entity facilitates interactions between two parties in a fiduciary capacity. Trust-based business models work but are costly and vulnerable to the inherent risk of trust. To the contrary, a proof-based model enables the power of “distribution” in that it enables the network of constituents itself to secure and verify a system’s state efficiently and cheaper. This point is extremely important, because trusted-third party schemes is how our existing internet architecture are designed. Displacement technologies such as blockchain networks will have a huge impact on the way we do business. The paradigm-shift from consolidated trusted-third party systems to a distributed proof-based system will have an enormous impact on the following areas: • Cyber-security & data privacy • Banking & investment • New & unique business models At the core, blockchain technology attacks the very foundations of “trust-based” systems and aims to replace with a distributed “proof-based” systems. The platform to achieve real-world use case of a proof-based business model and achieves positive mass network effect will usher in new types of companies solving new types of problems based on a total difference of mechanism of reaching consensus- establishing value. Question # 2: Where are there opportunities of inefficiencies in the current system that blockchain technology can replace? Having a fundamental understanding of the true value proposition of blockchain technology coupled with the technical understanding of how each protocol works; opens the door for a more interesting conversation on areas were the the existing system is most vulnerable. In the case of Bitcoin, the network’s purpose is to be an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust. This is a different value proposition then the Ethereum network which purpose is to be a distributed protocol that offers a platform which promises to support more general applications beyond electronic payment applications and protocols such as Bitcoin, Dash and Litecoin. Understanding these core but critical differences is the first step in differentiating between platforms for new entrants and a reminder for more seasoned crypto participants in evaluating blockchain platforms. In conclusion, it is important to understand the “real” core problem the blockchain network is proposing to solve. And is the technical challenges and value proposition feasible or even necessary in comparison to its rival networks? Please leave your comments and share your thoughts and let's all grow together.

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Smart contracts are opening up to non-developers, including “migrant mothers”, in a move to make them more accessible and secure. The autorun scripts, currently only written by developers, can now be written by anyone in just a few minutes, according to Sparkster, a startup that seeks to accelerate blockchain development and was present at Blockchain Expo Europe at RAI Amsterdam. Sajjad Daya, CEO of Sparkster, told Blockchain News that throughout his life as an entrepreneur, his companies have always had to develop enterprise resource planning software. This is the commercial software that runs the company. He was frustrated by the gap between the developers who write the code and the business needs of the other side. Daya said: “When you talk to software developers, they do not understand the commercial aspect, I wanted the tools to do this myself, we created a platform to allow anyone to create software without writing the code, we spend USD 8 million on construction. of the product In 2016 we were interested in blockchain but we discovered that it is really difficult to create software for blockchain “. The Sparkster crowdsale begins on June 30 and aims to raise USD 5.7 million. The Know Your Customer (KYC) documentation deadline ends tonight Another company that seeks to open block chains and intelligent contracts for the public that is not programming is My Wish, which is intended to be compatible with Bitcoin, Ethereum and NEO, and that runs on all platforms that support intelligent contracts. Vladimir Tikhomirov, CEO, told Blockchain News: “My ultimate goal is to make smart contracts available to everyone, including a migrant mother, everyone talks about it, but not many people know how to apply it. Smart in five minutes, you can create a wedding contract, the process of creation and implementation in blockchain is completely automatic. “ Tikhomirov also expressed concern about the large number of errors present in smart contracts and the fear that funds may freeze or be lost. He said that trust must be restored and that the creation of safe intelligent contracts will help the community to recover it.

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Babbitt News, recently, the reporter learned from the Chinese Wills Library Management Committee that as the first professional institution to apply the blockchain judicial deposit to the whole process of the will, the Chinese testament library has passed the electronic evidence cloud with the Jingjing balance. The platform cooperation will implement the relevant standards in the case of the remains of social depositary scenarios in the first white paper in the field of judicial deposits, the White Paper on the Application of Judicial Deposits in Blockchain, into the process of will registration. Hu Fang, director of the Beijing Registration Center of the Chinese Testament Library, said that in the process of depositing the will of the will, the blockchain technology ensured the authenticity and untamedness of the registration process and content of the will. In terms of time traceability, the National Time Service Center provides timing information, which will be trusted for the will content and timing information. The inspection and traceability of the wills may be conducted on the official website of the National Time Service Center.

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One of the companies behind the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), has announced the launch of Alonzo Blue 2.0’s testnet for the cryptocurrency’s blockchain, in another step forward to bringing smart contracts to Cardano. In a tweet, IOHK detailed this is an important milestone as even though it’s “still early code” it’s a “crucial building block.” It provides an important update to the command line interface that will allow future smart contracts to be built upon on the network. Moreover, smart transactions enabling users to associate a transaction’s metadata on-chain and store executable contract data are being implemented. Stake pool operators have 24 hours to update their nodes before running test scrips. Alonzo Blue is part of a series of upgrades that will bring smart contracts to the Cardano network and allow developers to create decentralized applications on it, bringing the decentralized finance ecosystem to ADA. Currently, smart contracts have allowed developers to create DeFi applications on Ethereum., Binance Smart Chain, and Solana, for example. The Alonzo hard fork is part of the network’s “Goguen” era, named after Joseph Goguen, an American professor of computer science from the University of California and the University of Oxford. The Goguen era comes after the Shelley phase, in which Cardano became a decentralized blockchain and community members became validators. Alonzo will roll out in three phases: blue, white, and purple. Each opens up more to the public until the upgrade’s full integration is complete, with the process taking 90 days. It’s expected to be completed by the end of August. It will include a converter to allow ERC20 tokens from the Ethereum blockchain to run on Cardano. As CryptoGlobe reported, the Cardano network has recently hit a new milestone, as one million wallets have now been created on it. The milestone was reached at a time in which thousands of new wallets are being created every day as presumably more users join the network in anticipation of the smart contract rollout. The price of Cardano’s ADA is up over 1,900% over the last 12 months as it’s currently trading at $1.56, according to CryptoCompare data. The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss. Featured Image via Pixabay.com

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Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to getting into blockchain in some capacity. It’s come up more than a few times in the software development circles I run in, and I’ve talked to two people recently who claim to have made a profit trading in bitcoin. A buddy of mine has been trying to get me to invest in bitcoin for a few years, but I’ve been skeptical. It seems too volatile for my tastes right now. Nor am I sure I want to get into the business of actually mining for bitcoin. But I do think there is something of value in the underlying technology, namely blockchain. What is Blockchain? Blockchain, in the most simple terms, is basically a ledger. That’s it. An example of it’s usage would be in sending money. If you and I are sharing a ledger, I can add money to yours, and you could do the same for mine. In very basic terms that is what cryptocurrencies like bitcoin use blockchain to do, update ledger entries. But what makes blockchain special as a ledger? Well, for starters, each “block” in the “chain” is immutable. That’s technical jargon for saying that it can’t be changed. It is essentially a permanent record of the transaction that takes place in the ledger. It accomplishes this security by adding a secret key to each block, called a hash. This hash encrypts the data (in the example above the data would be the dollar amount being transferred). If the data is tampered with then the hash would be invalid. It also contains the hash of the previous block. Did you get that last point? It contains the hash of the previous block in the chain. This means that each block in the chain contains security of the other blocks in the chain. So if one block is tampered with, the whole chain becomes invalid. But How Do We Share Blockchains? Blockchains are shared via a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. Most networks are centralized networks. Think of social network like Facebook. All the data Facebook stores is on a centralized set of computers (also known as “servers”) that we all subscribe to when we log into Facebook to check our feed. But blockchains are stored on every participants computer (also known as a “node”) on a network. So if you and I choose to share a blockchain we will both have an exact copy of the blockchain on our machines, rather than calling out to a centralized server to get the data. Sounds Like Blockchain Could Be Slow and Cumbersome, Right? That’s right. Blockchains are known to be slow and cumbersome. Especially when you consider that each addition to the blockchain requires something called a “proof of work” before the update can take place. In the case of bitcoin this proof of work can take 10 minutes to complete. The blockchain for bitcoin specifically is currently around 150 gigabytes in size. That is A LOT of data to be moving around on nodes on a network. But there are developers trying to solve for this problem. A technology like IOTA’s Tangle removes the linearity from blockchain, enabling users on the P2P network to only need a portion of the Tangle on their machine and still be able to verify all the data on the Tangle. There is also something known as a “Lightning Network”, which acts as a way for you to share a portion of a blockchain with another user(s), update that portion as often as you’d like, but not have to update the full blockchain until you decide to broadcast the contents of that Lightning Network back up to the blockchain. This eliminates having to update huge amounts of data for every transaction. OK, Enough Technical Nonsense, What Can Blockchain Do For Me? Good question. What use is all this technology? Well, that is what I’m trying figure out. Clearly if you’re interested in risky investing, then you can drop some coinage in the bitcoin market. If you’re even remotely technically savvy you could purchase a bitcoin miner. This is basically a computer that goes out in the internet and “mines” bitcoins. Think of the Old West Gold Rush in the United States. Miners flocked to the western part of the country with their pick-axes and shovels and looked for gold. That’s essentially what these bitcoin mining computers do. I haven’t tried mining for bitcoin, but miners state online that you seem to recoup your investment in about 4 months. It sounds like if you buy a $400 dollar miner, then it would take about 4 months to see a $400 dollar profit. That’s about $100 dollars a month if the miner is running all the time. I’m not sure if these are accurate numbers, I’m just repeating what I’ve read online and heard on YouTube, but I may try this myself. I guess the main drawbacks are that they user a lot of electricity, are noisy, loud and run hot. Might be a worthwhile experiment though. Other than crypto currency some ideas floating around online for blockchain include: - Online voting - Smart odometers in your car so that the mileage can’t be tampered with. - Tamper-proof, smart contracts - Getting payments to the correct artists in streaming services Imagine only having to pay for auto-insurance during the time that you’re in your car, or if you’re a musician being able to pass metadata along with your song so that you can have the song know where to send profits from streaming? You can see how this technology could impact your bottom line. Another problem that blockchain can potentially solve is the issue with online identity, and being able to finally own your online identity. Right now when you give data to social media sites they own that data. They own your pictures, comments, etc., and can do with them what they like. Blockchain could potentially allow you to “travel the internet”, carrying all the collateral associated with your online identity in an electronic passport. You could then allow online services to access only those parts of your online identity that you choose, and revoke those privileges at any time. Check out Sir Tim Beners-Lee’s new project “Solid“. This project is attempting to pave the way for this type of usage. One Final Note Probably the most interesting potential for this technology is that prospect of mitigating “remittance ripoff”. Think about the high cost of transferring funds around the world. Imagine you’re a migrant worker sending money to family back in your home country. When you get paid, you go to the bank, wire the money to your family. The bank charges a fee for this, and the funds transfer to other 3rd party services, all charging a fee, and then several days later your family finally receives the money, and you’ve been charged an exorbitant amount for the service. Don Tapscott stated it like this, some people have “appropriated the largesse of the digital age asymmetrically. We have wealth creation but we have growing social inequality”. Image too, that your family owns a piece of land, and have the papers to prove it. It is not unheard of in certain parts of the world that a government entity could claim that the deed to the land is not valid, and take the land from you. Now imagine what would happen to your family for generations to come because of that action. Not only do you no longer have your land, but you lose the ability to borrow money against that land, the ability to work it for profit, and the ability to pass it down to future generations. With the immutability of transactions inherent in blockchain these problems of inequality could be solved. It could build an internet of value, a democratization of the internet that everyone could participate, and potentially build wealth for billions of people. I’m not sure where blockchain will actually lead, but I’m excited about the prospect. We didn’t know where the internet would go when it was first created, but look at all the wealth it’s created. We didn’t even know what value an airplane could possibly have when the Wright Brothers finally solved the problem of flight, but the value became apparent in short time. I feel like that’s where we are at with blockchain, and I’m going to keep an eye it and see what opportunities rise. Will you?

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Bitcoin Basics in Australia Bitcoin 101 - what is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is an open-source, de-centralized, peer-to-peer digital commodity. Woah, Quite a jargon-y mouthful indeed! Let's decontruct that. Open-source: this simply means that the underlying control structures (in this case the computer code) which makes up the system/program in question, is "open" and freely available for anyone to access, inspect, modify, fix, change (break), etc. Flying in the face of western competitive capitalism and corporate greed, open source software can sometimes be a difficult concept for some to understand and fully appreciate. Consider it the future way of creating software (or of doing anything, really), as it's a co-operative model, instead of a competitive one. As we're coming to learn and accept, the model of co-operation is a far more efficient and effective one. The era of compete & deceive seems to be (thankfully!) coming to an end. De-centralized: the state of having no central authority. Akin to mushroom mycellium, the Internet, fractals, holograms, universes, etc., this is a model of the all-is-one theme of this universe. Instead of a top-down, pyramidal system of domination & control (think many religions, governments, military, many societies, etc.), a de-centralized system is just that - all lateral, with no real hierarchy. This model is also proving to be far more efficient at distribution, equity, resource management, sustainability, and on and on. If you think that having the Federal Reserve (a private corporate entity which controls the US monetary system) seems like a bad idea - then Bitcoin's de-centralized nature is right up your alley. Peer to Peer: the flip-side of the de-centralized model. As there is no real top-down control system, there are simply "nodes" on the network, just like the Internet. Everything connects to everything else. All is one. Aum! Digital commodity: Bitcoin is one of the few commodities on the planet which supply happens at a known, predictable rate, and cannot be modified (well, itechnically it could be modified, if the community agreed to the modification). It was designed to be essentially counterfeit-proof, and extremely fungible or divisible (each Bitcoin is comprised of 100-million individual "Satoshis", ie, there are 8 decimal places to a Bitcoin). What is required to control/access Bitcoin? Bitcoin is stored in wallet addresses which are protected by private keys. An example of a wallet address is: 1BKPi3B88vAA5FDCBhxq6vFXMzK5S9jmKw. Each wallet address has an associated "Private Key" which is used to grant access to the coins at the associated wallet address. The private key is a much longer set of characters and is all that is needed to access Bitcoin stored at the associated wallet address. How does one acquire Bitcoin? There are really only 2 ways, either threw barter, or threw Bitcoin "mining". Barter would include all the various currency, commodity, service and fiat exchange services, and "mining" is the process of running a piece of software which validates the transactions of the network, and receiving a reward for doing so. This website has a lot of information on how to buy bitcoin via exchanges: bitcoins.com.au. #bitcoin-otc is the web-of-trust driven site, where the geeks who jockey the network do their trading via Internet Relay Chat/IRC (where, if one can gain the community's trust, is a far more effective place & way to trade bitcoin.) How does one spend Bitcoin? Once you have accessed Bitcoin stored at a wallet address, to spend it is as simple as entering in the address you wish to send it to, and pressing your wallet's Send key, and confirming the transaction. There is no going back, or chargebacks - it's on you to verify the address is correct and you truly wish to send funds there. Instantly, the request for funds to be moved is transmitted to the network and the Bitcoin are then spendable by the recipient after being confirmed (which takes on average about an hour). As the state of the art in wallets is about to drastically change (given the Trezor and other hardware wallets on the way) this procedure of spending, and even storing, is about to radically alter. Many nay-sayers have rightly said that Bitcoin will never reach critical mass until it has a user-friendly application & way to accept and spend it, well those days are rapidly approaching. The Trezor is due to ship in the fall of 2013.

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Vega is a protocol for decentralized trading and execution of financial products. It is designed for fully automated, end-to-end margin trading in open public networks, secured by proof-of-bid. Vega describes a new incentive scheme that uses a dynamic liquidity market. From the Vega technical document, I liked several ideas that underlie the concept. Vega opens and decentralizes markets by fully automating the processes and incentives for trading and settlement of financial products between participants. Trading and settlement are designed to be fair and predictable for participants. Access will be open to all, and the creation of markets will no longer depend on central parties or organizations. The market management functions in Vega are based on the concept of share-weighted voting, with various actions such as creating and closing markets, as well as setting parameters that affect their behavior. Vega is a decentralized platform for financial products in which no single node or party will be compromised. To meet the need for a flexible, self-managed system, Vega provides a standardized structure for creating and interacting with markets that is both rigid enough to provide certainty for users, and flexibly designed to allow for future expansion of types of markets and products, as well as trading modes. The main part protocol is simple to ensure that implementations and the behavior of various transactions can be tested and can be verified by any observer.

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How Blockchain Delivers Business Value Today The popular conversation about blockchain reminds me of how augmented reality (AR) usually gets discussed in the news. The conversation often focuses on narrowly defined but easy-to-grasp examples, such as Pokemon GO for AR and bitcoin for blockchain. The limited scope is understandable, but it tells only part of the story. As with AR, there is more to blockchain than bitcoin and Facebook Libra. Blockchain is rapidly evolving to deliver value to enterprises now. What is Blockchain? Think of blockchain as a ledger that allows data to be distributed but not copied. Blockchain holds promise for creating accountability, transparency, and trust to complex digital transactions. It’s especially applicable when multiple parties in a transaction do not know each other, a reality especially as businesses in multiple countries rely on financial intermediaries to buy and sells goods and services. Blockchain makes it possible for them to trust the system instead of the parties involved. I have often thought that distributed ledger technology would be a far more descriptive and accurate term for blockchain. But the term blockchain seems to be here to stay. A number of businesses are using blockchain to improve the way they operate. Let’s look at a few. Walmart Improves the Food Supply Chain Walmart is adopting blockchain technology to track the complete journey that food products take from suppliers to Walmart retail shelves. Better traceability helps the company spot the source of problems in its supply chain and resolve them more quickly – including the source of food-borne diseases. When a serious problem occurs, such as contaminated food from a farm working its way into the supply chain, blockchain can help Walmart rapidly pinpointing the source of a problem without disrupting the entire supply chain. Walmart created a food traceability system based on Hyperledger Fabric, a type of blockchain ledger. Walmart can trace the origin of more than 25 products from five different suppliers. Already with a mango supplier, Walmart has cut down the time required to trace the provenance of mangoes seven days to 2.2 seconds. There is much more to come. Walmart has announced that it will start requiring all of its suppliers of fresh leafy greens (such as salad) to use the system to trace their products. In addition, number of businesses are using blockchain to reduce the costs and improve efficiencies in the way businesses manage money transfers, a process that is fraught with costs associated with fees and differing exchange rates. These examples follow here: Veem Manages Money Transfers As discussed in CNBC, Veem is a money-transfer business that intends to to simplify cross-border wire transfers and payments among vendors and contractors. Veem uses blockchain as one of three ways to facilitate money transfers, including the use of traditional banking SWIFT codes (the latter of which can be a time-consuming process). According to CNBC, blockchain transactions happen in seconds and reduce the effort required for multiple parties to complete paperwork at a bank. Blockchain-based transactions account for 62 percent of Veem’s total transactions managed. An International Commercial Bank Facilitates Letters of Credit Pactera helped an international commercial bank implement blockchain to manage letters of credit among multiple international parties. A letter of credit is common within international trade and goods delivery, where the reliability of contracting parties cannot be readily and easily determined. Its economic effect is to introduce a bank as underwriting the credit risk of the buyer paying the seller for goods. For example, seller of goods and services in the United States might need a bank to present a letter of credit to a buyer in Japan in order to verify that the seller is trustworthy. A letter of credit is like a guarantee, with an intermediary sharing some risk. But it can take weeks and even months sometime months to complete one single letter-of-credit transaction with many parties in the middle involved – including the seller, buyer, bank, logistics carrier, and government bodies. Pactera collaborated with our client to incorporate blockchain into its letter-of-credit process. The same number of intermediaries are required, but they now may use a distributed ledger to manage immutable records with transparency. Working with the bank, we: - Built a new letter-of-credit transaction platform and included an application layer to integrate the platform with the bank’s existing system. - Built an external application program interface for direct access to the data stored in blockchain. - Implemented a smart contract rules and payment. As a result, our client has dramatically cut down on the processing time needed to manage the process of securing a letter of credit. A Global Bank Manages Interbank Exchanges Our client, a global bank, needs to transfer funds among other banks to facilitate transactions between its customers and parties who do business with other banks. The options for doing so can require a complicated journey among intermediaries using methods such as the SWIFT code (as with Veem). The bureaucracy can be especially burdensome on smaller banks. For our client, we implemented a blockchain system that makes it as easy to transfer money outside its branches as within them. Parties involved in a transaction can easily manage money transfers regardless of currencies involved. As with the international bank managing letters of credit, our role spanned building a platform and developing associated software required to integrate blockchain properly with the bank’s legacy systems. As a result, the process is managed faster and more efficiently. Where Is Blockchain Going? In 2020, I think it is safe to say that bitcoin will continue to dominate the discussion of blockchain, for better or worse. Just Google “blockchain prediction,” and you can get a sense of where the discussion is focused at the time of this writing. The top six search results all have something to do with Bitcoin prediction. But blockchain will continue to make inroads quietly amid multiple industries. When you dig beyond the news, already you see examples of businesses that continue to implement blockchain. For example, the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN), an international consortium built on Hyperledger Fabric, said it had successfully completed a pilot project to protect against exploitative cobalt mining practices. As reported in CoinDesk, member companies sent 1.5 tons of Congolese cobalt across three different continents, clearing the way for the project to move forward in 2020. Member companies include Ford, LG, Volkswagon, and Volvo. The work of the RSBN is one example of how blockchain is helping businesses be more responsive to consumers who want businesses to place purpose alongside profit in their operations. Another example is Everledger, which makes the sourcing and delivery of diamonds more transparent for consumers who want assurance that their products are being sourced in a sustainable fashion. Truly, we are just beginning to realize the potential of blockchain. Contact Pactera Edge Pactera Edge provides myriad services to help businesses deliver measurable value with blockchain. Our work spans brand and business innovation consulting; blockchain implementation, deployment, and operation; and cloud and security services. Contact us to make blockchain succeed for you. About the author: Yong Liang is Associate Vice President and Product Lead for AI related solutions at Pactera. He works on several up and coming AI technologies that support enterprise business.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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need to calculate year over year percentage change for your company? in today’s session, i will show you how to calculate year over year percentage change in excel. the excel sheet is about revenue earned each year from 2015 to 2020. there are five columns, year, earning amount, yoy growth (basic formula), yoy growth(advanced formula), cumulative year over year. we will calculate the percentage changes year over year. we will see how to do that in both the conventional way and with the advanced way as well. it’s obvious that we can not calculate the change for the first one, as there is nothing before that. you will get the value in your desired format. now you can write the formula for the rest of the rows or simply use excel autofill feature. 1 is the decimal equivalent of 100%. now, when we are dividing two values, it gives us a decimal value. rather than calculating changes year by year, you may need to see the changes over a certain period of time. when you are calculating cumulative changes, you need to have a common base value. you need to calculate the changes using that base value. while doing it by the formula in excel we used absolute cell reference of the cell containing the amount of 2015. you may need to increase or decrease the decimal places. explore the number section of the home tab, you will find the increase decimal and decrease decimal option. you can choose what you prefer to use. you can see by decreasing the decimal places the value has been updated. according to your need, you can use increase decimal or decrease decimal. i have tried listing a couple of ways to calculate year over year percentage change in excel. let me know which of the methods you are going to use. you can also write your own way to do the task. my articles are targeted to support you in enriching knowledge regarding different features related to microsoft excel. this post may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we may earn an affiliate commission, but this never influences our opinion. we provide tips, how to guide and also provide excel solutions to your business problems. year-over-year (yoy) growth compares the change in a company’s annualized metric in two comparable periods, typically the current period and the prior period as of the fiscal year-end date. the question being answered is, “has our business been growing at a faster pace than the previous year, or has our growth been slowing down in recent years?” as shown above, the current period amount is divided by the prior period amount, and then one is subtracted to get to a percentage rate. for example, if a company’s revenue has grown from $25 million to $30 million, then the formula for the yoy growth rate is: alternatively, another method to calculate the yoy growth is to subtract the prior period balance from the current period balance, and then divide that amount by the prior period balance. to provide a brief example, consider a company whose revenue growth rate in the past year was 5%, but the growth rate is only 3% in the current year. however, the quality of the revenue being generated could have improved despite the slightly lower growth rate (e.g. it would be incorrect to assume that the current year was necessarily “worse” than the prior year without a deeper dive analysis. to access the model template, fill out the form below: if we multiply the prior period balance by (1 + growth rate assumption), we can calculate the projected current period balance. once we perform the same process for revenue in all forecasted periods, as well as for ebit, the next part of our modeling exercise is to calculate the yoy growth rate. in year 1, we divide $104m by $100m and subtract one to get 4.0%, which reflects the growth rate from the preceding year. enroll in the premium package: learn financial statement modeling, dcf, m&a, lbo and comps. if you don’t receive the email, be sure to check your spam folder before requesting the files again. get instant access to video lessons taught by experienced investment bankers. this sample excel (spreadsheet) files contains the monthly yoy calculation of three consecutive years. this is a fully editable file where you can download, this year over year analysis (yoy) template demonstrates how to perform a yoy analysis using financial data. below is a preview of the template:. year over year data analysis 1. select a cell in your data sheet. 2. go to insert ribbon’s tabb and click on pivot table. 3. a dialog box will appear., year on year analysis excel, year on year analysis excel, year over year growth formula, year over year growth percentage formula excel, pro forma template excel. in today’s session, i will show you how to calculate year over year percentage change in excel, which can be used in any version of excel. existing customer retention vs new customer acquisitions. yoy growth calculator – excel template. now that calendar printing on one page or twelve pages (thirteen pages for school year calendars). display of weekdays from sunday to saturday or from monday to, how to calculate year over year percentage, how to calculate year over year % growth in excel pivot table, year over year report template, year over year graph, yoy growth formula excel with negative numbers, how to calculate yoy growth for 3 years, power pivot year over year, how to work out year on year growth in excel, financial plan template excel, e commerce excel templates free. When you try to get related information on year over year excel template, you may look for related areas. year on year analysis excel, year over year growth formula, year over year growth percentage formula excel, pro forma template excel, how to calculate year over year percentage, how to calculate year over year % growth in excel pivot table, year over year report template, year over year graph, yoy growth formula excel with negative numbers, how to calculate yoy growth for 3 years, power pivot year over year, how to work out year on year growth in excel, financial plan template excel, e commerce excel templates free.

Personal Finance

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This page contains affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info. To celebrate the launch of Trail Wallet 2.0, the major update to our travel budget app, it’s Travel Finance Week on Never Ending Voyage. In the past we’ve often shared our travel costs for travelling around certain countries or living in different cities, but that doesn’t give you the whole picture of exactly how much is costs to live as digital nomads, working and travelling around the world. In this post we’ll share our total expenses for the last 3.5 years since we left the UK to travel permanently in March 2010. Our annual expenses are broken down into four main areas: - Daily Expenses – These are our day to day living costs including accommodation, food, in country transport, and low cost activities. - Flights – Domestic and international flights. - Extras – This includes insurance, visas, doctor visits, new passports, and major activities like Spanish courses and multi day tours. - Business – These expenses aren’t related to travel but to running our online business. They include technology (laptops, hard drives, iPhone, camera), website hosting, domains, software, and cloud storage. These are our expenses for each year (including the first half of this year) of our travels. This is for two people in British pounds (with the totals converted into dollars at the current exchange rate in the last column). |Daily Expenses||Flights||Extras||Business||Total (GBP)||Total (USD)1| 1. Exchange rate as of September 2013 2. First six months only Our aim has never been to travel on a rock bottom budget. This is our life, not a time and budget limited trip, and we want to enjoy it. We are fairly careful about money but still manage to go where we want to go and do what we want to do. Our comfort level has increased since the first year as we now rarely stay in hostels (preferring apartments, boutique hotels, and family-run guesthouses) and we’ve started spending part of the year in more expensive countries. Our income has also increased so we feel more comfortable spending money. That’s reflected in an increase in our spending—up just under 10% in Year 2, and 16% in Year 3. If we continue spending at this year’s current rate we’re on track to spend about the same as Year 3 (update: we ended up spending slightly less). Interestingly we have spent less each year than we did on our year-long round the world trip in 2007-8 which is due to the fact that we travel much more slowly these days in order to balance work and travel. To give you a better idea of what we spent our money on here’s a breakdown of each year (click on the orange links for more detailed country budgets). Year 1 (March 2010-February 2011) We spent the entire first year in South America travelling from Brazil to Argentina and all the way up the continent to Colombia where we flew to Panama. You can see a more detailed breakdown of our spending per country in our South America budget. Here I’ve also included our flights from the UK to Brazil, and our travel and gear insurance. Our business expenses were much lower in the first year and were mostly one off items like a new Eee PC laptop, iPod Touch, Kindle, and hard drive. Year 2 (March 2011-February 2012) We started in Central America (Panama and Costa Rica) and then flew up to the US and on to Canada, back to the UK in the summer and then Asia: Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand. We had house sits for part of our time in the US and Japan so that helped to keep costs down. We lived in Chiang Mai for five months where you can have a high quality of life for a reasonable price, and slow travel is really much cheaper than moving around all the time. As we flew a lot that year our flight costs were the highest yet, and we made the expensive mistake of booking a return ticket from Vancouver to London and then having to waste the second half of the ticket when our plans changed. We don’t book anything that far in advance any more. Extras included white water rafting in Costa Rica, a week at Disney World with car hire in Florida and a couple of days at Disney in Japan (it was a fun year!), Thai visas and extensions, Burmese visas, and a few trips to the doctors in Chiang Mai. Business expenses were up because I upgraded my Eee PC to a Macbook Air (so worth it!). Year 3 (March 2012-February 2013) Our third year as digital nomads began in Chiang Mai and we travelled to Burma, the Thai Islands with a side trip to Malaysia, and then spent the summer in Europe visiting the UK, Italy (twice, including a month in Tuscany), Belgium, and Portugal (including living in Lisbon for a month). We spent a month in Jordan and Egypt, took a quick trip to London and Miami, and ended the year living by the Caribbean for three months in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Spending five months in Europe and the Middle East (Egypt wasn’t as cheap as we’d hoped) meant that our daily expenses were definitely up this year and overall we spent 16% more than in year 2. Our travel expenses would have been even higher but in year 3 we started doing more sponsored travel either where tourist boards paid for our trips (Belgium, Jordan, and the Douro Valley in Portugal) or we worked in partnership with apartments, hotels and tour companies and received complimentary or discounted rates in exchange for writing about our experiences. This helps reduce our expenses and allows us to do things and visit places that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to, but the majority of our travel isn’t sponsored. Extras included insurance (we now use True Traveller), doctors visits, Simon’s rabies vaccinations, and a new passport. Business expenses were high because Simon upgraded to a 15 inch Macbook Retina (which he loves) and bought an unlocked iPhone 5. Our regular monthly business expenses have increased as our site has grown and we had to upgrade our hosting to a VPS (from a shared to virtual private server), pay for the Amazon content delivery network, and for Mailchimp which manages our newsletter. We also started paying a monthly fee for Adobe Creative Cloud which gives us access to software like Photoshop and Lightroom. We pay $99 a year for the iOS developer program so we can develop and sell our apps. Year 4 (1st 6 months) (March 2013-August 2013) During the first half of this year we travelled to Cuba, central Mexico, and then settled for another three months in the tiny Mexican beach town San Pancho, which again showed how affordable slow travel is. In July we spent a few weeks house sitting and staying with a friend in San Francisco, and did a week-long road trip to Sonoma County and Yosemite National Park. In August we visited the UK and started our cross-Europe train trip in Paris, Munich and Slovenia. If our spending continues at the same rate for the second half of the year we’ll spend about the same as we did in year 3. That will all depend where we decide to spend the winter—we’re currently in Sicily and have no idea where we’ll go next. Again business expenses are much higher because of our increased regular expenses and also because we went a bit crazy in the US. I bought a new camera and lens (a mirrorless Olympus OMD-EM5 to replace my seven year old SLR), and the file sizes were so big I promptly ran out of space on my Macbook Air and had to upgrade. Simon also bought an iPad mini—it was an expensive month! Update: for a complete breakdown of what we spent see our Year 4 digital nomad budget. How We Track our Expenses and Manage Our Money I used to track our expenses by trying to remember what we’d spent and entering it in a spreadsheet at the end of each day. It was quite a frustrating exercise which is why Simon created our Trail Wallet iPhone app, so that we had a quick and easy way to track our expenses while we were out and about. I’ve been using that for a year now and we’ve been really pleased that other travellers have also found it useful and there are now thousands of fellow Trail Walleteers. This week we launched Trail Wallet 2.0, a major update to the app with lots of new features like the ability to track your expenses by trip (with your own dates) as well as by month. As well as creating a trip for each place we visit I’ve also created a trip for “extras” to keep track of the expenses that aren’t location specific. I also have a spreadsheet that tracks our income and summarises our expenses in the way we’ve shared above. On the first of each month I check every bank balance, plus our paypal accounts and the amount of cash we have on hand, and enter the totals in another spreadsheet so I have a clear picture of exactly how much money we have. It’s a good idea to check internet banking regularly anyway for any discrepancies. We have multiple credit and debit cards in case we lose any, plus some emergency cash. We manage everything by internet banking. You can read a more detailed post about how we manage our finances while travelling. Before we left the UK we hadn’t yet started our online business so we saved enough to keep us going for the first year—we saved 75% of our joint income for nine months. Although we didn’t need most of our savings in the first year we have needed that safety net as our earnings vary each month. Our income has increased each year—we almost broke even in year 2 and finally did in year 3. We choose to work on things we love rather than things that would make us more money. We don’t earn a huge amount but it’s enough to cover a fairly comfortable life of full time travel and we love our life, so we’re happy with that. We earn our living online. Simon started out doing freelance web design and development, but gave up client work this year to focus on creating our own iPhone apps. We also earn money from this site and from the rent on a house we still own in England (we couldn’t sell it unfortunately). See this post for more details on how we fund our travels. We hope you’ve found this post useful and that it’s given you an idea of how much it costs for a couple to live a nomadic life working online as they travel the world. We certainly could travel more cheaply—by housesitting more, avoiding expensive countries, choosing cheaper accommodation, travelling more slowly, spending less on good food—but this isn’t a trip, it’s our life and we’re living it the way we want to. We’re constantly amazed and grateful that we’re able to live a life of travel, that despite a modest income we can live by the Caribbean in Mexico and in the Tuscan countryside, we can spend our time scuba diving in Thailand, learning to cook in Japan, white water rafting in Slovenia, and eating our way around Italy. Living nomadically makes this possible because we’re not tied down with regular expenses like car payments and electricity bills, and we have the flexibility to adapt our lifestyle and spending to our income. If we need to save some money we’ll live in Thailand for a while, if we’ve got the cash why not temple hop around Japan or go wine tasting in California? The freedom our life gives us is priceless.

Personal Finance

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Creating a long-term financial plan that ties your life aspirations to your financial goals can help you to distinguish wants from needs, establish clear priorities, and avoid misguided investment decisions. This is why when it comes to financial planning you should focus more on your goals and less on the numbers. Financial planning is a complex, lifelong process that people tend to approach with a numbers orientation. What rate of return do I need to reach my goal? How much insurance do I need? Can I afford a bigger house? How much money do I need to save for retirement? To support a pursuit of the "right numbers," people often use separate advisors. They may call on a banker, a financial planner, an insurance agent, a tax professional, and an estate planning attorney, all to oversee the various components of their household wealth. But can too many cooks spoil the broth? Moreover, how do you ensure that each of your advisors is working in sync with the other? This "siloed" approach to financial planning can easily lead to redundant investment strategies that could create exposure to unnecessary levels of risk. It may also result in multiple, random investment accounts in need of consolidation. Furthermore, such an approach may inadvertently overlook crucial tools, leaving entire planning areas to chance. Unlocking Financial Synergies When viewing your financial goals - such as buying a home, paying for a child's education, or saving for retirement - you may typically think in terms of what those goals cost rather than how achieving them might affect your life. If, however, you were to re-engineer the planning process and assess your current life issues and future aspirations prior to selecting investments and asset allocation strategies, you may be in a better position to achieve satisfactory outcomes. Perhaps equally important, by putting life circumstances at the center of financial decision-making, you may find more meaning in your actions with regard to money. Indeed, values have a significant role to play in determining how individuals manage their assets. This is one way in which a holistic approach to "financial life planning" enables individuals to better assess their wants and needs, establish meaningful priorities, and avoid misguided investments. And, as life circumstances and priorities change - as they inevitably will - so do financial goals. In this way, individuals employing a holistic approach to planning can easily identify and address those areas of their financial lives that are still working well and those that may be hindering their financial well-being. Crafting a Financial Plan Crafting a financial plan that reflects your unique situation and that ties your life aspirations to your financial goals is part art, part science. To achieve this level of planning you need to rely on the guidance of a single skilled advisor - someone who will take the time to get to know you and your circumstances and who will put together an appropriate combination of vehicles, strategies and, where appropriate, additional planning professionals to help achieve your goals - whatever they may be. If you want to explore putting a long-term financial plan in place that will help you to achieve your life goals, contact our team at Castle Financial today at (732) 888-4994 for a free consultation. We work closely with individuals and families across the United States to help them reach their future financial goals. Did you find this article helpful? If so, please use the links below to share on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by Wealth Management Systems Inc. or its sources, neither Wealth Management Systems Inc. nor its sources guarantees the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or availability of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. In no event shall Wealth Management Systems Inc. be liable for any indirect, special or consequential damages in connection with subscriber's or others' use of the content. © 2016 DST Systems, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited, except by permission. All rights reserved. Not responsible for any errors or omissions.

Personal Finance

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Everyone strives to achieve financial stability in their lives and continuously seeks ways to reach their goals. As the saying goes, “it is not the property of the privileged, neither is it the bounty of the fortunate few,” which means that financial success enables us to lead the lifestyle we want. You see, financial success is achievable for anyone who practices financial management. Achieving Financial Success: The meaning of the term “financial stability” varies from person to person. To achieve solid financial success in life, you must consider all aspects of success and hold on to your aces. - Having a good cash flow to support your lifestyle, or - Having a sizable amount of money in the bank account If your company offers enough financial rewards, and you achieved it even with a lack of interest in the job you perform, can you really consider it as a grand success? Probably not. Therefore, calculating your financial success is not solely dependent on your income, but also on how you assess your path of progress. Understanding the Factors Towards Success: To understand the metrics of financial success, you need to know the extent of your goals. Recognize your goals and then anticipate the resulting actions that may indicate that this goal is being achieved. A bank balance alone will not help you, especially when you are on your deathbed. What Can Financial Success Bring to You? It is important to remember that financial success is the result of hard work, not the net value. You can give yourself the capability to live the rest of your life without help from others. 10 Steps to a Financially Sound Lifestyle: Although prevention is a must if you want to live a healthy life, planning and budgeting are crucial to achieving a good financial position. You can never be financially strong if not debt-free. Here are a few basic steps you should take to attain eternal financial tranquility. - Get Paid What You Are Worth: Find a job where you are satisfied with the remuneration of your work. Know your field in the company you are working for. - Limit Your Spending Habits You can manage your finances by knowing your spending limits and meeting your income limits to meet your shopping needs. - Stick to a Budget Planning is crucial when it’s about attaining financial security. You can seek outside help to manage your finances in a way that is consistent with your income. Financial advisers at CreditGuard of America can help you develop a strategic financial plan. - Avoid Debt One of the most important ways to stay away from debt is to pay your bills immediately. - Have A Savings Plan Having a savings account for unexpected emergencies is extremely valuable. - Take Advantage of Your Employment Benefits Maximize your health and dental benefits. These can save you a great sum of money. - Keep an Emergency Fund Creating an emergency fund is an ideal way to deal with unforeseen emergencies. - Grow Your Net Worth You can grow and add value to your net worth by reducing debt, increasing income, and increasing savings. - Contribute to a Retirement Plan Save money for retirement - Have a Plan B It is important not to depend on just one income because one unfortunate emergency can take away your only source of income. Finally, it is important to design the financial budget with a backup plan and try to stay within the limits of your spending habits to achieve significant growth. If you want to learn how you can form the habits that will lead you towards financial independence, you might benefit from someone who can help you navigate the situation and plan a solution. Start your journey towards becoming debt-free. Speak to our certified credit counselors for free financial and budget counseling. No need for an appointment, just call 800-282-8497 toll-free or visit CreditGUARD of America’s website at https://www.creditguard.org/ for more information.

Personal Finance

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|(a) The following words and terms, when used in this section, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly (1) Managed audit--A taxpayer self-review and analysis of invoices, checks, accounting records, or other documents or information to determine a taxpayer's liability for tax under Tax Code, Chapter 151, as allowed under a written agreement with the comptroller authorizing a managed audit as described in subsection (f) of this section. (2) Percentage-based reporting method--A method by which a direct payment permit holder may be authorized to categorize purchase transactions according to standards specified in a letter of authorization issued under the provisions set out in subsection (g) of this section, reviews an agreed-on sample of invoices in those categories to determine the percentage of taxable transactions, and uses that percentage to calculate the amount of tax to be reported. (b) The comptroller or an authorized representative of the comptroller may audit a taxpayer's accounts and records at any time during regular business hours at the discretion of the comptroller or the comptroller's authorized agent or representative. (c) The comptroller may use a detailed auditing procedure or a sample and projection auditing method to determine tax liability. Sampling procedure may include manual sampling techniques and computer-assisted audit techniques, whichever produce the most accurate results in the most efficient manner. (d) A sample and projection auditing method is appropriate (1) the taxpayer's records are so detailed, complex, or voluminous that an audit of all detailed records would be unreasonable (2) the taxpayer's records are inadequate or insufficient, so that a competent audit for the period in question is not otherwise (3) the cost of an audit of all detailed records to the taxpayer or to the state will be unreasonable in relation to the benefits derived, and sampling procedures will produce a reasonable (e) Before using a sample technique to establish a tax liability, the comptroller must notify the taxpayer in writing of the sampling procedure to be used. (f) The comptroller may authorize taxpayers that meet certain requirements to perform managed audits. (1) A taxpayer who wishes to participate in a managed audit must request authorization from the comptroller's office to conduct a managed audit under this section. Authorization will only be granted as part of a written agreement between the taxpayer and the comptroller's office. The agreement must: (A) be signed by an authorized representative of the comptroller and the taxpayer; and (B) specify the period to be audited and the procedure to be followed. (2) In determining whether to authorize a managed audit, the comptroller may consider, in addition to other factors the comptroller (A) the taxpayer's history of tax compliance, including: (i) timely filing of all reports; (ii) timely payment of all taxes and fees due the state; (iii) prior audit history; (iv) delinquency in other taxes; (v) correction of problems identified; (vi) collection of tax that was not remitted; and (vii) whether a penalty waiver had been denied on prior occasions and the reason for denial; (B) the amount of time and resources the taxpayer has available to dedicate to the audit; (C) the extent, availability, and completeness of the taxpayer's records for the period to be covered by the managed audit; (D) the taxpayer's ability to pay any expected liability; (E) the size and sophistication of the taxpayer. (3) The decision to authorize or not authorize a managed audit rests solely with the comptroller. (4) A managed audit may be limited to certain categories of liability under Tax Code, Chapter 151, including tax on: (A) sales of one or more types of taxable items; (B) purchases of assets; (C) purchases of expense items; (D) purchases under a direct payment permit; or (E) any other category specified in an agreement authorized by this section. (5) Before the audit is finalized, the comptroller may examine records that the comptroller determines are necessary to verify the results. (6) Unless the audit or information reviewed by the comptroller under this subsection discloses fraud or willful evasion of the tax, the comptroller may not assess a penalty and may waive all or part of the interest that would otherwise accrue on any amount identified to be due in a managed audit. This subsection does not apply to any amount collected by the taxpayer that was a tax or represented to be a tax but was not remitted to this state. (7) Except as provided by applicable law, the taxpayer is entitled to a refund of any tax overpayment disclosed by a managed audit. See §3.325 of this title (relating to Refunds and Payments (g) The comptroller may authorize direct payment permit holders that meet certain requirements to report tax on purchases using a percentage-based reporting method. (1) A holder of a direct payment permit may request authorization from the comptroller to use a percentage-based reporting method. The authorized percentage must be used for a three-year period specified by the comptroller, unless the authorization is revoked by the comptroller. (2) The authorization to report under this subsection may be revoked if the comptroller determines that the percentage being used is no longer representative because of a change in the taxpayer's business operations or in law, including a change in the interpretation of a law or rule. For example, two decisions from the Court of Appeals changed the list of items that may be purchased tax free by manufacturers. Subsequently the legislature passed two bills that significantly changed the tax responsibilities of manufacturers. Each of these changes affected a manufacturer's percentage used to report taxable purchases. (3) The decision of the comptroller to deny or revoke authorization under this section is not subject to appeal. (4) When authorizing reporting under this section, the comptroller may categorize transactions by dollar amount, by type of taxable item purchased, by the purpose for which the taxable item will be used, or by other standards appropriate to the taxpayer's (h) A taxpayer who holds a permit issued under Tax Code, Chapter 151, who has paid Texas tax in error on purchases of taxable items, whether sales tax was remitted directly to this state or to a retailer holding a permit under Tax Code, Chapter 151, may compute the amount of overpayment by use of a projection based on a sampling of transactions. (1) The sampling method must be one that has been approved by the comptroller. (2) The taxpayer must record the method by which the projection and computation were performed and must make available, on request by the comptroller, information explaining the method employed and the records on which the projection and computation were based. (i) A taxpayer who holds a permit issued under Tax Code, Chapter 151, may obtain reimbursement for amounts determined to have been overpaid by taking a credit on one or more sales tax returns or by filing a claim for refund with the comptroller within the limitation period specified by Tax Code, Chapter 111. See §3.325 of this title. A taxpayer is required to keep contemporaneous records to substantiate and enable verification of the taxpayer's credit or refund claim for a minimum of four years from the date on which the record is made, and throughout any period in which any tax, penalty, or interest may be assessed, collected, or refunded by the comptroller, or in which an administrative hearing or judicial proceeding is pending, unless the comptroller authorizes in writing a shorter retention period. (1) A taxpayer may take a credit by amending the sales tax return for the period in which the tax was originally paid. (2) If a taxpayer chooses to take the credit by claiming a refund, the claim must identify the period in which the tax was (3) A taxpayer who claims a credit or submits a refund request for local taxes must identify the period in which the local tax was paid and the local taxing jurisdiction to which the local tax was reported. (4) Interest will be paid on tax amounts found to be erroneously paid for reports due on or after January 1, 2000, whether claimed on a request for refund or claimed in an audit. See also §3.325 of this title and Tax Code, §111.064. (j) If records are inadequate to accurately reflect the business operations of the taxpayer, the auditor will determine the best information available and base the audit report on that information. See §3.281 of this title (relating to Records Required; Information Required) for information on proper records. (k) Resale and exemption certificates. (1) Resale and exemption certificates should be available at the time of the audit. All certificates obtained on or after the date the comptroller's auditor actually begins work on the audit at the seller's place of business or on the seller's records after the entrance conference are subject to verification. All incomplete certificates will be disallowed regardless of when they were obtained. (2) The seller has 90 days, or until a later date agreed to in writing by the comptroller and the seller, referred to in this section as "the period," from the date written notice is received by the seller from the comptroller in which to deliver the certificates to the comptroller. Written notice shall be given by the comptroller no earlier than the filing of a petition for redetermination or claim (3) For the purposes of this section, written notice given by mail is presumed to have been received by the seller within three business days from the date of deposit in the custody of the United States Postal Service. The seller may overcome the presumption by submitting proof from the United States Postal Service or by other competent evidence showing a later delivery date. (4) If the seller is not in possession of the certificates by the end of the period, any deductions claimed which require resale or exemption certificates will be disallowed. Exemptions claimed by those certificates acquired during the period will be subject to independent verification by the comptroller before the deductions will be allowed. (5) Certificates delivered after the period will not be accepted. See §3.285 of this title (relating to Resale Certificate; Sales for Resale); §3.286 of this title (relating to Seller's and Purchaser's Responsibilities); §3.287 of this title (relating to Exemption Certificates); and §3.288 of this title (relating to Direct Payment Procedures and Qualifications). (6) When written notice has been received, a resale or exemption certificate is the only acceptable proof that a taxable item was purchased for resale or qualifies for exemption. (l) Both sellers and purchasers are subject to audit and assessment of tax on any transactions on which tax was due but has not been paid. (m) The comptroller may proceed against either the seller or purchaser, or against both, until the tax, penalty, and interest have been paid. |Source Note: The provisions of this §3.282 adopted to be effective January 1, 1976; amended to be effective December 21, 1983, 8 TexReg 5037; amended to be effective December 31, 1984, 9 TexReg 6333; amended to be effective August 5, 1985, 10 TexReg 2321; amended to be effective September 16, 1991, 16 TexReg 4844; amended to be effective September 19, 2000, 25 TexReg 9219; amended to be effective June 6, 2002, 27 TexReg 4727; amended to be effective August 15, 2013, 38 TexReg 5109; amended to be effective April 26, 2022, 47 TexReg 2292

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With the introduction of a corporate income tax. The UAE CT regime is expected to introduce TP rules and TP documentation requirements in line with the OECD TP Guidelines. What is Transfer Pricing? Transfer pricing refers to the prices of goods and services that are exchanged between companies under common control. For example, if a subsidiary company sells goods or renders services to its holding company or a sister company, the price charged is referred to as the transfer price. Transfer pricing is an accounting practice in which a particular division or subsidiary of a company charges a second division or subsidiary of the same company for goods or services. This can provide tax savings for the larger enterprise, as the companies are able to divide earnings among subsidiaries and affiliates. By using transfer pricing, companies can move tax liabilities to jurisdictions with low taxes to reduce corporate tax bills. The transfer pricing practice can cover not only goods and services but also intellectual property such as research, patents, and royalties. It can be used both domestically and across borders; when used internationally, it can take advantage of varying tax rates in different countries. What is Arm’s Length Price? The arm’s length price (ALP) of a transaction between two associated enterprises is the price that would be paid if the transactions had taken place between two comparable independent and unrelated parties, where the consideration is only commercial. Expected TP impact on businesses Taxpayers should apply the arm’s length principle to ensure that the transactions between related parties reflect independent pricing. Such arm’s length price is fairly a market price of such commodity or service in the market. All companies would have to comply with the transfer pricing rules and documentation requirements. These transfer pricing rules would be mandatory and could also be applicable to domestic transactions As a general practice, Federal Tax Authority (FTA) shall make an assessment and scrutinize the transfer pricing policies, documentation, inter-company and inter-group transactions, etc whether transactions are consistent with TP regulations. Business entities are subject to huge penalties for non-compliance with Transfer Pricing regulations. Transfer Pricing Documentation Businesses will have to comply with transfer pricing rules and documentation requirements set with reference to the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. The purpose of transfer pricing documentation is to show that the company’s related-party transactions are in accordance with the arm’s-length principle. Good transfer pricing documentation should clearly lay out how the functions, assets and risks are shared between related parties in each related-party transaction in such a way that anyone can understand, whether or not they are familiar with the company. Documentation model under OECD guidelines As per the OECD guidelines on transfer pricing, authorities adopt a three-tier approach for transfer pricing documentation consisting of: - Master file– containing standardized information for all MNE group members - Local file– is where the company documents the details of its intercompany transactions in each country. Each company files this document with its jurisdiction’s tax authority. - Country by Country Report – Global allocation of the MNE groups’ income and tax paid, indicators of the location of economic activity within the MNE group. TP Methods Under OECD Guidelines The arm’s length price for a controlled transaction can be determined by selecting and applying the most appropriate transfer pricing method. OECD recognizes five main transfer pricing methods: 1-Traditional transaction method - Comparable Uncontrolled Price Method The comparable uncontrolled price (CUP) method establishes a price based on the pricing of similar transactions that have taken place between third parties. When comparable uncontrolled prices exist, this is a reliable transfer pricing method, and one of the most difficult to challenge. The challenge of this pricing method is that comparable transactions can be difficult to find. Even the addition of a few small variables can differentiate the cases enough to render the CUP method insufficient for establishing an accurate price based on the available information. - Resale Price Method The resale-minus method bases its pricing on the resale price of a product or asset sold to a third party. But that resale price is then adjusted by subtracting the gross margin, along with additional costs associated with the purchase. After these costs are deducted from the resale price, the resulting figure can be used as an arm’s-length price to guide the transfer pricing between two entities. - Cost Plus Method When no market price is available to serve as a basis for pricing, organizations can use the cost-plus transfer pricing method to set a price by calculating the standard cost of delivering the relevant goods and adding on top of that price a standard profit margin. The sum of these numbers can then be used as a fair transfer price for the transaction. 2-Transactional profit method - Transactional Net Margin Method When actual transaction data isn’t available, enterprises can use margin levels to establish transfer pricing. The transactional net margin method (TNMM) uses the net profits from another controlled transaction to establish a net profit that can then be applied when establishing transfer pricing for comparable, uncontrolled transactions. Because actual transactions aren’t being used, this transfer pricing method offers extra flexibility in identifying transactions to compare to one another. - Transactional Profit Split Method ** The profit split method is used when two parties are involved in the development of a product or some other venture in ways that make it difficult to examine each party on its own. Instead, the profit split method uses the profitability, or potential profitability, of a product or venture and develops a method of splitting profits that is fair to both organizations. This pricing method comes with challenges, because it is based on margin levels, and the accuracy of its profit splitting may be up for debate. But in the absence of more concrete data or a clear division of roles between entities, this transfer pricing method can help parties arrive at a fair compromise. Changes in the New Edition of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises & Tax Administrations: On 20 January 2022, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) has released a new edition of the Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations, which replaces the previous 2017 edition. The OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines provide guidance on the application of the “arm’s length principle”, which represents the international consensus on the valuation, for income tax purposes, of cross-border transactions between associated enterprises. The document was updated with the following issues: - **comments on the application of the transactional profit split method. - approach to complicated assessment of intangible assets. - new section regarding financial transactions. **The revision of the Guidance on the Transactional Profit Split method: (This replaced the guidance in Chapter II, Section C (paragraphs 2.114-2.151) found in the 2017 Transfer Pricing Guidelines and Annexes II and III to Chapter II) The revised guidance on transactional profit split method clarifies and significantly expands the guidance on when a profit split method may be the most appropriate method; The guidance describes the presence of one or more of the following indicators as being relevant – - Each party makes unique and valuable contributions. - The business operations are highly integrated such that the contributions of the parties cannot be reliably evaluated in isolation from each other. - The parties share the assumption of economically significant risks, or separately assume closely related risks. The guidance states that while a lack of comparable is, by itself, insufficient to warrant the use of the profit split method, if, conversely, reliable comparable are available, it is unlikely that the method will be the most appropriate. Companies should select an appropriate transfer pricing method by considering several factors like availability of information, strength, and weakness of the transfer pricing method appropriateness of the method in giving nature of transactions, etc. Once the transfer pricing method and reliable comparable are found, an arm’s length range can be calculated. The regulations may also provide an option to use methods other than approved Transfer Pricing Methods as above, provided that the Taxable Person can demonstrate a reliable measure of an Arm’s-Length price and documentation, and the suggested method satisfies the required provisions under UAE CT law. Alia Noor (FCMA, CIMA, MBA, GCC VAT Comp Dip, Oxford fintech programme, COSO Framework)Associate Partner Ahmad Alagbari Chartered Accountants

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Before committing to buying a home, it’s a good idea to understand your income and spending habits. Understanding your spending habits can help you identify problem areas, plan a realistic budget, and make the buying process much easier. Here are some basic tips for tracking. Track your spending for several consecutive months. A few weeks is usually not enough time to see the larger patterns in your spending. Recording your spending for at least three consecutive months will show the larger trends in your spending habits, and give you a good baseline. Write everything down, even little things like soda and fast food. It’s important to know exactly where your money goes. Small purchases can add up quickly, and have a major impact on your budget. Once you’ve tracked your spending, examine it carefully. There may be some places in which you can cut back or eliminate spending on luxuries. Small impulse purchases can become a significant portion of your spending, and are one of the easiest items to reduce or cut from your spending. Trimming down your spending can help create a larger budget for buying a house. Hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions call me.

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1. How are assessments calculated for the insurance sector? FSRA assessment calculations are based on the calculations shown in Rule 2019-001 for Assessments and Fees. To see the calculation for your specific industry, please refer to the following subsections: Insurance Sector: Subsection 4.1. The FSRA assessment is calculated by subsector using the following formula: Insurer’s direct written premiums for the subsector ÷ Total direct written premiums for the subsector Budgeted expenditures net of fees Insurers are subject to a minimum fee of $100 for fraternal societies and $1,000 for all other insurance entities. The FSRA assessment has been calculated based on the following subsectors: auto rates, property and casualty, property and casualty prudential regulation and life conduct. Total direct written premiums for the sectors used in the assessment calculation. |Sub-sector||Total direct written premiums (in thousands)| |Property and casualty||$30,947,028| |Property and casualty prudential regulation||$1,852,463| 2. What is the “Insurer’s minimum assessment adjustment” shown on line 9 of my invoice? Small insurance companies pay a minimum assessment of $1,000 and fraternal societies pay a minimum assessment of $100. These minimum assessments reduce the assessment payable by all other insurers. A credit (negative) amount on the insurer’s minimum assessment adjustment line represents the insurer’s share of this assessment reduction. A charge (positive) amount on line 9 represents the amount required to increase the insurer’s assessment to the minimum assessment amount. 3. Where does the information on my company’s written premiums come from? The data collected is based on returns filed by insurers to FSRA and Market-Security Analysis & Research Inc. (MSA)2020 premiums were used for the assessment calculation as 2021 premiums were not yet available at the time of the billing. 4. My company is no longer in business. Can the invoice be prorated? If your company was in business before January 31, 2022, you are required to pay an assessment for the period April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. Your invoice will not be pro-rated. 5. How do I update my contact information? Email: [email protected]

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Let’s face it; no one likes tax time. Whether you are doing your personal or business tax, submitting the paperwork is something many procrastinate doing. When it comes to Tax time, it pays to be organised! Most taxpayers will be expecting a refund, so getting your paperwork in order means you don’t miss or forget any expenses from the year, and everything you need is on hand to take the hassle out of your tax time. Find All Your Documents Saving everything to one place means it is there when you need it. You likely already have an accounts file for business expenses if you run a business. We don’t always consider doing this for our personal account keeping, but it does make tax time easier. You might have receipts for tools and clothing in either physical or electronic form; saving them all to a file on your computer can make things easier, especially if you have a few email accounts! Without accurate records, you may miss expenses which you can claim. When it comes to claiming deductions on your income, a good rule to follow is if you are going to claim it, you need to prove it. Some other documents you may have an area: - Previous years’ tax return - Records of sale or purchase of any shares, business or property - Private Health Insurance Details - Spouse details - Income statement from work, rental properties, interest, dividends, cryptocurrencies and foreign income - Expense records such as receipts for work-related expenses, donations, applicable self-education, and any costs incurred for managing your tax affairs – such as an accountant preparing your tax Create a List of Work-Related Expenses Every profession has tools of the trade; some are physical tools, and others might be software subscriptions. Eligible work-related expenses may include car expenses, uniforms, mobile phone bills, and union fees. If something you require to do your job or that helps you do a better job is not reimbursed by your employer, you may be eligible to claim it as a work expense. Once you have your list, make sure you have documents to support your claim. Working At Home Expenses With lock-downs and hybrid working arrangements on the rise, what you can claim as a work from home expense can be pretty confusing. Everyone’s circumstances are different, and a good accountant can walk you through the expenses you are eligible to claim. In general, you can claim a deduction for the additional expenses you acquire due to working from home. These are called running expenses and relate to the use of facilities within your home and include: - Electricity expenses for heating or cooling and lighting - Decline in value of office furniture and furnishings as well other items used for work – for example, a laptop - Internet expenses - Phone expenses As an employee working from home, generally: - you can’t claim occupancy expenses - there will be no capital gains tax (CGT) implications for your home. In certain circumstances, you may also be entitled to claim occupancy expenses. The ATO refers to expenses you pay to own, rent or use your home as occupancy expenses. They include: - Mortgage interest - Council and water rates - Land taxes - House insurance premiums If you are entitled to claim occupancy expenses, you may be taxed on any Capital Gains should you sell the property. What To Send Your Accountant If you are using an accountant to assist with your tax lodgement, they will need your list of documents and to supply: - Such as your driver’s license or passport - Bank account details - For your refund - Medicare card or number - Private health insurance information - Spouse details - Including details of their income Understanding what you are eligible to claim can be confusing, primarily if you work remotely or have multiple income streams. If you are a business owner, sometimes it’s not clear what is a business expense and what is a personal expense. We are here to help. Talk to our team about taking the stress out of tax time!

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Did you know that your financial future depends on personal finance? Well, it does! Most people assume that personal finance is something you do as an adult. If you did not have a lot of money to make ends meet in your youth, then you would not need personal finance. Unfortunately, your mother and grandmother never had the economic security you do today. In fact, they both worked long hours at very low wages just to keep up with the bills. As a result, both of them ended up having to file bankruptcy in order to avoid having their homes foreclosed on. Today, your chances of having to file such a bankruptcy are even slimmer than your mother and grandmother ever had. How can this be? Why are your chances of living the type of life you want so much more slim? Well, it all boils down to using personal finance correctly. You have to learn the basics of personal finance before you can truly say you understand the concept. Here is what you will want to consider. First, you must have a savings account. You want to have some money set aside to fall back on when emergencies arise. You may want to check out the interest free or no fee checking accounts available at your local bank. This will help you build a nest egg for the future. Even if you do not want to use this money, you still need it for emergencies and unexpected expenses. Second, you need to have a budget. There is no way to live well without having a personal finance budget. Without one, you will not know where to go or who to talk to when you need the money for something urgent. Your personal finance budget will serve as your road map to your goals. If you are like most people, you have a lot of goals in life. You may want to establish a joint bank account with your partner. Do this when you are living together, so that you can both establish separate accounts. In turn, your personal bank will know where to deposit your joint funds, saving you both time and frustration. Finally, you have to learn about personal finance. You can do this by reading books or watching videos online. You also can get some great ideas from other working mothers. Once you know the basics, then you are ready to start building your personal finance strategy to help you manage your finances. The most important thing when it comes to personal finance for working mother is that you are prepared to be financially responsible for yourself and your family. You must take the time to learn all you can about personal finance, saving and spending. And, most important of all, be financially prepared to handle unexpected expenses. When you have this information, you will be able to focus on building a solid financial foundation for your family. When you are planning for your future, it’s important to know where you are going and how you are going to get there. This includes having savings and investment fund of money that will support you for the years to come. You can save up for retirement, go on an all-inclusive vacation, buy your first home, or do anything else you desire. Just know that money is always available to you, but you must plan for it. One way to be fiscally responsible is to make a budget. Whether you are a stay-at-home-moms or you are currently working, you should create a budget. Include things like retirement, debt, insurance, taxes, groceries, etc. Be sure to make a list of everything you spend money on, as well as everything you earn. Then you can have a list of your personal financial goals to see what you need to do in order to achieve them. The budget will help you know where your money is going, which is important for personal finance planning. If you spend more than you earn, then your debts will increase, which means you will be paying interest on it for many years to come. If you are able to save more, you will be able to pay off those creditors, which will free up your bank account for spending. Knowing where your money is going is essential, especially if you are a stay-at-home-moms. Working mothers often have very limited hours, so they may not always have the money to do all the things they would like to. Because of this, they must make do with what they have. One of the most important things a mother could have is a personal budget. It will make it much easier to plan out your spending, know what is going out, and know where the money is going to go. The more time a mother spends planning her finances, the more time she will have to make the necessary changes to help her family survive.

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Finance Can Be Confusing and Scary But There Are Some Things That You Absolutely Must Know Face it, if you are anything like the majority of Americans, you are in debt. Some people are in a little, while the rest of us are up to our eyeballs in owing several different organizations our first born worth of bills. This can be mortgage, car loans, school bills, or just the good old plastic that everyone has now. But not only are you not alone in this dilemma, you can also find a finance training company to help you get back on the right path. With the proper finance training course, you can learn where you went wrong to accrue the debt you currently have, and just what you need to do in order to get rid of it. On top of that, you can learn how to start saving in the process. Those are just a few finance training topics that you can learn about. They are the bare necessities that you will need in order to live your life without burying yourself even further, and they can even get you out and comfortable again. Other finance project topics can include banking and which accounts would be the best fit for you. Savings, investments, and how to set yourself up for a comfortable retirement. How to be prepared in case of emergency with things like extra funds and liquidity, and even mortgage management and which one is safest for you to choose. There are plenty of finance project topics for you to choose from. It all depends on how complex your finances actually are, and how much you want to know. To be honest, the more you know the better, that way you can be assured that you will understand everything that is happening with your money, and never need to spend another night worrying about where money is going, and how you are going to pay the bills.

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What You Need to Know About IRS Tax Audits A tax audit can be random or it can be based on underreporting of income, failure to file a return, or under-paying taxes owed. This article will provide basic information on the types of IRS audits, the timing of audits, and the reasons for conducting an audit. Types of IRS Audits There are several different types of IRS tax audits, and any audit can result in interest, fines, and penalties being assessed after the audit, so each audit type must be taken seriously. A correspondence audit is conducted strictly by letter. The IRS sends a notification requesting clarification or documentation relating to specific items or issues. This is the least severe tax audit, and if you have the documentation to back up the deduction or item on your tax return, you may be able to handle this type of audit on your own. However, if you cannot substantiate the claim, you should obtain some help since interest and/or other penalties are typically imposed if the IRS determines that the deduction is illegitimate. An office audit is conducted at an IRS office. You will be asked to attend the audit and to provide specific documents outlined in the audit notice. A field audit is conducted at your home, or, if it is a business audit, at your place of business. The field audit is the broadest type of audit, and the IRS can request to see more documents than in the other types of audits. Usually, a field audit indicates that the IRS is looking for something specific, often related to business income. The IRS also conducts random audits. Since these audits are random, the IRS is not looking for anything specific, but your entire return will be reviewed. Timing of a Tax Audit Under most circumstances, the IRS can conduct an audit within three years of the date of filing of the return, but back taxes can be collected for up to 10 years. This means that if an audit of one year’s return uncovers an error in payment of taxes on returns that were filed more than three years before the audit was conducted, the back taxes on those previous returns – up to 10 years – can also be collected. There are exceptions to the three year limit on IRS audits which extends that timeframe, including fraud, failure to file a tax return, and significant underreporting of income, which allow the IRS to conduct the audit more than three years after the audit has been filed. Why Are You Being Audited? The IRS will audit you for a number of reasons, including random sampling, computerized screening, and comparison of your return with information received by the IRS from other sources. For example, if something on your return does not conform with information the IRS has received from your employer, it might trigger an audit. Failure to report income is another major reason for IRS audits. Every dollar of income received, including income received as an independent contractor, must be reported to the IRS. Deductions can also lead to an audit. Red flags that trigger IRS audits are related to business expenses, such as business travel, entertainment, and meals. Other deductions, including charitable donations, depreciation, and dependent exemptions may also trigger an audit. Cash businesses are also frequent targets for audits, since there is a perception that many cash-based businesses typically do not report all income received. Similarly, home-based businesses are often heavily scrutinized when a deduction is taken for space within the home that is dedicated to the business, since the IRS requires that if this deduction is taken, the space must be used “regularly and exclusively” for business purposes, and cannot be also used for personal reasons. If you have been audited in the past or receive notice that you are currently under audit, you should talk to an experienced tax lawyer, who can help guide you in the proper preparation of your return and going through an audit. Also, check out our article: What to Do Before, During, and After an IRS Tax Audit. Do You Need An Attorney? If so, post a short summary of your legal needs to our site and let attorneys submit applications to fulfill those needs. No time wasted, no hassle, no confusion, no cost.

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SPECIAL PRODUCT REPORT : How to Make 2020 A Financially Benefiting Year For You- By AXA Mansard The importance of financial planning can in truth not be overemphasis in anyone or any organizations road to financial emancipation It is the long-term method of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life. In order to create a sound financial plan, goals must first be established. Data is then gathered to analyze and evaluate your financial status. Once complete, your plan can be developed and implemented. Monitoring the plan on an ongoing basis is essential in order to make necessary adjustments to reach your goals. And now, if there is one organization doing all her best to help both their clients and non-clients to aim at achieving financial emancipation, that set up is non-other than the one called AXA Mansard, which is a member of AXA, a global leader in insurance and asset management As is now her new year custom, they have come up with the yearly start of year advice, and this time urging all and sundry to to start the year by making wise financial decisions in order to achieve set goals in 2020 and starting the journey towards financial independence. In a position paper made available to WORLD LEADERS online magazine, they confirmed that yearly, people all over the country aspired for financial independence by starting out with New Year resolutions and set goals. However, it added, many were still unable to realize these goals due to various reasons including low financial literacy, low determination, unclear goals and late implementation of financial plans. Accordingly , it is better to start late than never. The Chief Operating Officer, AXA Mansard Investments Limited, Mr. Alex Edafe, explained that, “It is important to start taking decisive steps now to foster the achievement of 2020 financial goals. Financial goals differ for everyone and could be short-term (zero to one year) such as investing towards the next house rent, school fees, travels, wedding, and automobile among others. “Medium-term (one to five years) goals will not be limited to investing towards buying a property (land/house/shop), advance/continuing education, starting a business/equity ownership in business(is), future school fees whereas long-term (after 5 years) goals include philanthropy, retirement savings, financial independence among others.” He said key strategies that could be applied for financial success in the New Year included paying attention to one’s health, building an emergency fund whilst improving financial literacy, taking insurance on risks one was unwilling to take, getting an extra source of income, automating one’s savings and investments. Others were getting out of debt, creating and living within budget, proper record keeping of savings and investments. Edafe stated that financial independence could be achieved by focus and intention. “As we go into the year, a great way to achieve financial independence is to invest in the AXA Mansard money market mutual fund which provides unit holders with capital preservation and competitive return. “The fund is liquid, hence a unit holder can liquidate within 24 hours, affordable when you consider the minimum investment amount of N1,000, accessible through various online and offline channels and professionally managed by AXA Mansard – a Fund Manager registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission.” · BASIC FACT ABOUT AXA MANSARD AXA Mansard is a member of the AXA Group, the worldwide leader in insurance and asset management with 166,000 employees serving 107 million clients in 64 countries. AXA Mansard Insurance plc is rated B+ by A.M. Best (2016) for Financial Strength. The Company is also certified ISO 9001:2008 compliant by the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) for quality management systems. AXA is present in geographically diverse markets, with operations concentrated in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. AXA is also present in Central and South America, Middle East and in Africa via operations in Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal and Algeria. AXA has more than over 20 years continuous presence in Africa. *BASIC FACT about AXA Mansard Insurance Nigeria AXA Mansard Insurance Plc offers insurance and asset management services. The Company offers motor, home, life, travel, education, and commercial insurance services, as well as financial advisory, portfolio and risk management, and investment consulting services. Santa Clara Court Plot 1412, Ahmadu Bello Way Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria *A CERUTTI MEDIASPECIAL BRAND FOCUS REPORT FOR WORLD LEADERS SMS +234 7042631895

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Rule 5 is Plan, schedule, plan.. The more planning and scheduling you can do, the better. You can plan your time at the level of the day, week, month, semester, or year. That never hurts. If you write in the morning, do a planning schedule in the afternoon for the next day's activities. Constantly review and revise your medium-term plan. Find places where you can improve it. Shift back and forth between short, medium, and long-term thinking. I do a similar thing with my finances. I find that I can pay a bill early, so I do it. I have a list of financial goals that I look at every day, and I often discover that I can meet one earlier than expected. After my ***** is resolved I will be completely debt-free though I will still have some monthly financial obligations.

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This budgeting frame is particularly appropriate when paying off ‘negative wealth’. When people have debt negative wealth, the customary advice is ‘don’t save; throw everything to pay it off’. I happen to disagree with this and from the very first days of my financial awakening I set myself two goals: one pay negative wealth and pay it fast; and two build up an emergency fund and savings. As it turned out I am in good company and Arkad, the richest man in Babylon, also agrees with me. Arkad’s advice to people who have negative wealth and wish to become wealthy was the following: Ten percent of all you earn should be saved and invested. Twenty percent of all you earn should be used to pay debts negative wealth– if the amount is insufficient one should negotiate with their creditors firmly and convince them that this all that they can afford but that they will pay diligently. Seventy percent of all you earn should be used to cover all living expenses. Currently we put 21% of our monthly net income to pay off negative wealth; 14% of our monthly income is saved and a proportion of this is invested; and we cover all our living expenses using the 65% of our monthly income that is left. I have mentioned before that the real beauty of this system is that it uses percentages rather than absolute numbers. I will not change the proportions – although we observe these only when applied to our regular monthly income; any occasional earning, mainly husband’s, are thrown at the negative wealth at present. Using this budgeting frame also focuses attention on the fact that the way to increase payment(s) in absolute terms one ought to earn more.

Personal Finance

9