Who are the people influencing blockchain’s mainstream adoption?

Who are the people influencing blockchain’s mainstream adoption?

by | Nov 7, 2019 | News

Considering the vast business opportunities blockchain offers, becoming mainstream is just a matter of time. In 2015, there were 5 million wallets. Only 3 years later, in 2019, the number of blockchain wallets surpassed 42 million. Over the past 11 years years, blockchain transformed the way companies conduct their business and how people prefer to do transactions. And with all these happening, mainstream adoption is still taking its time. But adoption will not happen on its own. Public people and industry leaders will be the ones to drive the mainstream adoption of blockchain. So who are the people influencing blockchain’s mainstream adoption and who are working tirelessly to build an operational blockchain ecosystem?

John McAfee

The creator of McAfee antivirus and cybersecurity tools, John McAfee believes that the blockchain will be adopted in mass just like it happened with the internet. The famous computer programmer has deep-rooted ties with cybersecurity, and it is understandable why he thinks so, considering that blockchain provides critical security options by decentralizing information and computational infrastructure resources.

Vitalik Buterin

Buterin is a Russian-Canadian computer programmer and co-founder of the Ethereum Network and Bitcoin Magazine.

Using as a platform Ethereum, programmers can construct a wide variety of decentralized software, called DApps. These DApps can operate successfully on the Ethereum network instead of using a centralized computer location. While its own mainstream adoption has not clicked yet, Ethereum is growing daily. Actually, Ethereum’s programmers are working tirelessly to solving present scalability challenges and planning potential transactions to both shared network and also proof-of-stake consensus protocol.

Charlie Lee

Lee is mainly known as the founder of Litecoin, which is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies. As Lee declared this year, he will enhance Litecoin’s fungibility and will address its privacy issues by adding confidential trades. Lee declared in an interview: “[I] … think for sure cryptocurrency will be one of the currencies that people will use; it will achieve mass adoption one day. The volatility will come down and things will be priced in cryptocurrencies.”

Andreas Antonopoulos

Antonopoulos, another person to add to the list when thinking about the people influencing blockchain’s mainstream adoption. Andreas Antonopoulos is a speaker, author of Mastering Bitcoin, The Internet of Money, and Mastering Ethereum, a programmer and an entrepreneur.

He represents a huge information source for Institutions,  blockchain business, researchers and incubators such as DAO Maker.

After his “Thoughts of the Future of Money” talk, during the Q&A session, someone asked the following question: “Which scalability options should the community adopt?” and Antonopolous replied, “That’s an easy one to answer: All of them.” He further explained that scalability problems don’t get solved, they only get “pushed further out,” and since the network expands, new forms of application and use-cases become visible to present new capacity challenges.

Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo is known for building Bit Gold, which is considered by some the precursor of Bitcoin. Szabo is a renowned computer scientist, legal scholar and cryptographer who developed the idea of Smart Contracts. 

Companies like Modium, Ambrosus and Chronicled are integrating Smart Contract using IoT to improve traceability. One example of such a smart contract happens when the sensor that monitors the temperature of meals in transit record their data to the blockchain. That’s when the smart contract is initiated and executes a payment to the provider.

Erik Voorhees

Voorhees is an American-Panamanian founder of Shapeshift. Erik Voorhees is also one of the top-recognized Bitcoin Entrepreneurs and Advocates. In a recent interview, he said:

“Mass adoption needs to be specified according to the specific use case. While we aren’t at mass adoption of any of these categories yet, we are certainly past the point of ‘mass adoption’ in at least a couple.”

Marvin Steinberg

Steinberg is one of the primary Security Token Offering (STO) specialists. Marvin Steinberg is the creator of SteinbergInvest, which owns various subsidiaries such as CPI Technologies, the only firm supplying white-label STO solutions. Currently, he is leading the $700 million Time Square tokenization project, which might significantly increase the adoption of tokenized securities.

Marc Andreessen

Andreessen is the co-founder and a partner of the famous venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz. Besides being a powerful advocate of both Bitcoin and blockchain, he is among those who consider that blockchain technology can assist realign incentives between users and platforms. Andreessen is an integral investor in several blockchain ventures. Actually, he has developed an industry-centric venture capital finance. In addition, he works as a key blockchain adviser to other institutions.

Jed McCaleb

Jed McCaleb is a developer and co-founder of Stellar Development Foundation. Stellar Foundation is a low-cost utility network. In fact, it employs an exceptional consensus protocol along with a set of reliable anchors, like banks and payment processors, to ease near-instantaneous and extremely affordable monetary trades on the Stellar blockchain system. This lets users swap and send money across international borders. Actually, it enables cost-effective micropayments.

Roger Ver

Roger Ver is also an American and one of the oldest investors in, and promoters of, Bitcoin. He is commonly called “Bitcoin Jesus” due to is devotion and constant support for its adoption. Actually, he utilizes his entrepreneurial spirit to preach the gospel to anyone who’d listen to financing early crypto startups. Ver invests in projects that build new crypto protocols and software.

Blockchain for Securing Global Supply Chain

Blockchain for Securing Global Supply Chain

by | Nov 5, 2019 | News

Blockchain technology has the capability to alter the worldwide supply chain and enhance the speed and safety of tackling the flow of products at international boundaries. But researchers say a lot of questions still remain about how the transformation will occur.

Weidong “Larry” Shi, an associate professor of at the University of Houston stated:

“It’s an emerging technology. It’s evolving,”

This was stated in a paper, published in the International Journal of Production Research, which investigates the possible disturbance and assures that blockchain can secure the global flow of products and identifies differences between the private sector and governmental agencies that have to be addressed. The paper is funded by the University of Houston and led by its Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence.

Shi said this indicates that embracing blockchain to monitor the movement of products globally may benefit both business and agencies charged with ensuring the protection of cargo entering the United States. “It could move items through customs more quickly, and it would allow customs to focus its resources on the minority of cargo that needs closer scrutiny,” he said.

The paper is concentrated on six distribution chain “pain points”: traceability, dispute resolution, freight integrity and safety, supply chain digitalization, compliance, and stakeholder management and trust. And of course, the key challenges for mass adoption.

“The wide adoption of blockchain technology in the global SC (supply chain) market is still in its infancy,” they wrote. “Industry experts project that on average, it may take about six years for the widespread adoption of blockchain.”

According to Shi, one of the challenges is to decide which blockchain technology ought to be utilized. He forecasts which will be ascertained industry-by-industry and also the need for shared standards and applicable regulations and laws.

Widespread adoption may also need organizations to share some information with both governments of the nations by which the products pass, in addition to with their opponents. But the benefits could be considerable, from enhancing the capacity to confirm where products come from and what path they travelled to get to the end-user, to solving concerns about counterfeit solutions.

Blockchain would decrease fraud, Shi said. “The data can’t be changed. Everyone (along the supply chain) has a copy. You can add information, but you can’t change it.”

Three years ago, people didn’t know what blockchain was,” Shi said. “They thought it was bitcoin. Now they understand that it’s a technology.”

The investigators are working with both business and the national authorities, and Shi said they discovered high interest among business, including a couple of pilot projects employing blockchain technology. However, any alternative, he stated, should incorporate the demands and responsibilities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection so as to make sure it meets the objective of pre-clearing most freight before it enters a port. “It is a better way of sharing data, and a better picture of what is going on.”

Crypto World October 2019: Bitcoin is not a security, Canada wants crypto, Europe doesn’t accept crypto as fiat substitute

Crypto World October 2019: Bitcoin is not a security, Canada wants crypto, Europe doesn’t accept crypto as fiat substitute

by | Oct 31, 2019 | News

Canada set off to create its own cryptocurrency

If you can not beat’em, join ’em.

Allegedly, Canada is beginning to embrace the notion of launching a cryptocurrency. It’d replace fiat and, provided the inherent and automated coverage connected with crypto, would permit the nation to continuously monitor all financial moves by everybody in the nation.

China wants to become a leader in the blockchain industry

China is still a major force in the blockchain industry.

This is a fact, based on the number of businesses which have been founded in China, and now the number is getting higher. The Cyberspace Administration of China approved 309 brand new blockchain providers in October 2019. The businesses are offering solutions from eCommerce to tourism and from health care to legal issues.

The SEC has no Interest in regulating bitcoin as a security

After Cipher Technologies Bitcoin Fund filed a registration statement, the SEC responded in writing that it didn’t think Bitcoin was a security. Even though the SEC has provided several signs that it doesn’t believe Bitcoin for a security, this was the first printed statement by the bureau that Bitcoin wasn’t a security for purposes of the Investment Company Act of 1940.

“current purchasers of Bitcoin are not relying on the …. efforts of others to produce a profit. Accordingly, because Cipher intends to invest substantially all of its assets in Bitcoin as currently structured, it does not meet the definition of an ‘investment company’ under the Investment Company Act.”

The SEC noted if Bitcoin were a security, it could, “raise substantial other issues” since Bitcoin would subsequently become an “unregistered publicly-offered security”

ECB president says cryptocurrencies are no substitute for money

Central banks and government regulators are still express uncertainty over cryptocurrencies.

The most recent banker to question the usefulness of cryptocurrencies has been Mario Draghi, the powerful president of the European Central Bank (“ECB”). Draghi especially addressed so-called stablecoins, that can be electronic tokens with values attached to additional, stable assets like U.S. dollars.

In a letter to Eva Kaili, a European lawmaker, Draghi noted that stablecoins have popular appeal for the reduced rates of volatility and funding from recognized technology businesses, like Facebook, which has declared its stablecoin, Libra.

He also warned us that stablecoins aren’t a suitable substitute for cash in the regions of financial policy, market infrastructures and financial system stability. He said that “stablecoins and crypto-assets have had limited implications in these areas.” Despite his skepticism, Draghi attempted to strike a conciliatory note by stating that the ECB’s present stern view is that electronic assets could change in the future because of the accelerated pace of technology and shifting business models.

Bitcoin blockchain reached $1 billion in cumulative transaction fees

On Oct. 30, 2019, the bitcoin blockchain reached $1 billion in cumulative transaction fees.

“This milestone is a really cool milestone just because it shows how much people value block space,” said Bryan Aulds, founder of bitcoin wallet Billfodl. “And that it’s something people don’t mind paying for, which I think is really important moving forward.”

Based on data in blockchain analytics startup BlockChair, the quantity of bitcoin trade fees collected yearly has decreased in the last few decades. This is a result of the arrival of scaling alternatives on bitcoin such as “Segregated Witness” along with also the Lightning Network.

And though the cumulative quantity of bitcoin trade fees converted into USD amounts to about $1 billion, the sum is really much bigger in case you take into account the market value of bitcoin today. In accordance with Coin Metrics information, 204808.3479 BTC was distributed in trade fees to miners since 2009. At today’s cost, that is equal to $1.86 billion.

The cumulative size of transaction fees on the bitcoin system is just set to grow bigger in the coming years, as different mechanisms for rewarding miners like block subsidies gradually decrease.

“Over the long run, the transaction fees will eventually have to replace the block [subsidy],” said Jameson Lopp, CTO of bitcoin management startup Casa. “There’s a reason why it’s called the block subsidy in the code. It’s because it is subsidizing the security of the network,” adding:

“The understanding all along is that this subsidy via inflation will have to be replaced by the people who are paying to use the network via transaction fees.”

“We have another 10 to 13 years of decent subsidies left before it drops away to pretty negligible amounts,” said Billfodl’s Auld.

While this occurs, miners might need to begin adjusting sustainability steps around the relatively more volatile worth of trade fees instead of block subsidies.

“You have to start thinking more about the game theory around miner profitability and what would happen if the profitability of a miner becomes a lot more volatile from hour to hour, day to day,” said Lopp. “For example, we already know there are both daily and weekly cycles of demand for block space.”

UNICEF started accepting cryptocurrency

UNICEF will now receive contributions of cryptocurrencies, through its newly-established UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund. UNICEF will utilize cryptocurrencies to finance open-source technologies benefiting children and young people across the globe.

Under the arrangement of this UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund, donations will be stored as cryptocurrency and used as cryptocurrency, not converting it to fiat.

“This is a new and exciting venture for UNICEF,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “If digital economies and currencies have the potential to shape the lives of coming generations, it is important that we explore the opportunities they offer. That’s why the creation of our Cryptocurrency Fund is a significant and welcome step forward in humanitarian and development work.”

Is blockchain going to Space?

Is blockchain going to Space?

by | Oct 17, 2019 | Blockchain, News

The blockchain that provides unprecedented safety and confidence for consumers (as it can’t be hacked or controlled), represents a new means to process present procedures, produce cost savings, and safely exchange data and worth. Blockchain, together with Internet of Things and Artifical Intelligence, have been called the “holy trinity of disruptive technology.”

Blockchain in FinTech

With its roots in fintech, blockchain has helped empower the cryptocurrency trend that started with Bitcoin. These days, the entire world is moving toward electronic possession of cash. The main reason is the decentralized ledger that blockchain uses, the blockchain.

Back in August 2017, a mistake by Google temporarily caused almost half of Japan to be denied access to the internet. While connectivity has been restored over the hour, users underwent slow link rates, which influenced industries like finance, where online trading has been stopped.

Within this scenario, dispersing the bitcoin blockchain through satellite could have assured the blockchain stayed in sync with the rest of the planet and so, unaffected by net outages.

Blockchain technology today touches virtually every business, by protecting medical records and individual privacy, to monitoring food security and medicine supply chain compliance, to supporting art credibility, to validating petroleum and gas trades as well as property ownership internationally.

Within the international space business, new and existing space innovators attempt to capitalize on blockchain’s assurance from the race into Low-Earth orbit (LEO), producing new opportunities for cooperation, new satellite-as-a-service business models, and new techniques to deal with the space distribution chain as well as how to construct payloads.

“There are huge opportunities for blockchain in satellite networks,” says Helena Correia Mendonça, chief consultant in the aerospace and ICT branches of a Portuguese law company, Vieira de Almeida (VdA), in which she has educated African American and European customers on space issues. She believes the embracing blockchain in the space industry was the natural step in blockchain’s expansion.

Enhancing the Satellite Value Chain

Mendonça states blockchain in satellites generates transparency, confidence, and efficacy in the satellite worth series.

For example, in logistics, utilizing smart contracts for starting and operating satellites, obtaining transparent data for insurance purposes, and exercising governmental functions (for example resorting to blockchain from the licensing procedure for establishing a satellite and also in tracking space surgeries).

It’s also beneficial in regards to the supply of blockchain data via satellite and even in turning tanks to “smart emancipated devices” through utilizing smart contracts.

Satellites may also be significant sources of distance information for upgrading blocks and confirming the integrity and source of data. And will drive smart contracts and logistics software while being really beneficial to the insurance market.

In a developing area such as Africa, it might also lead has contributed to more fiscal inclusion due to satellites’ ability to connect those otherwise excluded.

“One of the issues many of these countries have is determining the ownership and registering land, as well as identity … We know developing countries are using their government’s blockchain for this purpose,” says Mendonça. “If you get blockchain in satellites, you also get the benefit of blockchain without the need for these huge investments in ground networks.”

Blockchain can consequently become truly global using satellites.

Deep space applications like space mining may also leverage blockchain to help monitor and manage tools, states Mendonça.

Brian Rider, CTO for Seattle-based LeoStella, that is revolutionizing constellation structure of smallsats, sees two programs for blockchain in distance.

The first is supplying a worldwide distribution system that’s persistent and sovereignty agnostic. The second one is utilizing the blockchain to deliver advantage computing processing to distance.

“I really think it could become the core of how satellite activity and tasking are secured [in the future],” he says. “The thing that keeps me up at night is not hackers breaking into data that is being transacted across a satellite, but hackers taking control of satellites. Blockchain is a key aspect of how we will secure our constellations in addition to using blockchain to support commercial transactions.”

Deep space applications like space mining may also leverage blockchain to help monitor and manage tools, states Mendonça.

Dennis Gatens, a 30-year veteran of satellite, cloud and telecom solutions, currently serving as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) for Cloud Constellation, agrees, noting that assignments to the moon and especially Mars will need crews to make conclusions “inside the human loop” due to transmission time delays involving crews close or around Mars and tools back on Earth.

Edge computing, empowered by blockchain and AI, will perform crucial roles. “Eventually, deep space will become part of the national security strategy, and blockchain will play a valuable role in making sure that data is secure and not compromised,” he says.

Enabling Cloud Services in Space

Cloud Constellation and IBM’s Space Tech group hope to leverage both AI and blockchain as they work to enable a cloud transformation in space.

The two companies, in a current co-authored white paper, compared the importance of blockchain in distance to the first Industrial Revolution.

Gatens states Cloud Constellation intends to provide global connectivity directly into the enterprise and protected data storage in orbit, using a roadmap to data and advantage computing from IBM, as a part of its SpaceBelt Data Security as a Service (DSaaS) portfolio.

Blockchain over satellite gets rid of the dependence on terrestrial infrastructure to the movement, memory, or computation of information and that, based on Gatens, eliminates a substantial vulnerability for information breach or compromise of information.

“Blockchain gives you the ability to have a chain of custody associated with data, whether the data is at rest or in motion; from end-user to end user, satellite to satellite, moving in and out of storage on our satellites, or you are combining it with artificial intelligence to look for anomalous transactions or attempts at anomalous transactions.”

Tracking the Satellite Supply Chain

Naeem Altaf, IBM’s Distinguished Engineer and CTO for SpaceTech, sees great opportunities for SpaceBelt and IBM’s blockchain service to monitor and confirm the transport and trust of providers throughout each stage of the procurement, construction, launching and testing of a satellite.

“Today, we use terrestrial networks to talk to data centers,” he says. “In the future, Cloud Constellation will have a sort of data center in orbit where companies can upload their data and bypass the terrestrial network.”

Authorities and fiscal applications will be to embrace the space blockchain, Altaf states, though other businesses will not be far behind. Altaf says any business with sensitive information along with a great deal of remote websites which will need to acquire information from various sources may use space blockchain.

Another place is that the production of satellites out of procurement to the launching website: blockchain could monitor a satellite’s motion, sharing information with all providers, and may apply rules like any modifications made to the satellite demand the validity of the group.

Cloud Constellation chose Seattle-based LeoStella to construct its 10-satellite LEO system. Nine will probably be busy and the last one will work as a hot spare and will have a first data storage capacity of 1.6 petabytes for clients on orbit.

“We selected LeoStella because they aligned with our vision and have the ability to manufacture the kind of satellite we need,” says Gatens

Two optical rings will interconnect the whole constellation to guarantee redundancy and self-healing for high accessibility. The SpaceBelt system will communicate with protected SpaceBelt access points situated at business clients’ places via connectivity with present Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) satellite services.

“We are about two-and-a-half years away from first service availability and we hope to do some early customer evaluations in the service in fourth quarter of 2021,” says Gatens.

Even though Cloud Constellation has recently started to talk about blockchain, two additional companies have made remarkable inroads: Blockstream and SpaceChain.

Enhancing the World’s First Blockchain-enabled Public Satellite Service

“We see satellite technology as very useful to augment and reinforce exiting blockchain applications,” states Chris Cook, CTO, Blockstream, a blockchain and fiscal cryptography firm, and also the first to disperse bitcoin blockchain via satellite.

Bitcoin now has a market cap of $183 billion and the general cryptocurrency market cap is $273 billion, even though Cook quotes the total market size to become substantially bigger if one counts all of the ancillary businesses in the business.

Blockstream jumped to the space industry with Blockstream Satellite, just two years ago. This is the world’s earliest public satellite service which permits everyone to operate and keep bitcoin nodes, without the limitations of conventional network connectivity.

The service, provided from five transponders on four GEO communication satellites, is absolutely free to anybody as soon as they buy about $100 in parts, including a tiny 45-inch antenna. Cook states Blockstream does not have any clue how many consumers are utilizing the system since the service and network are made to safeguard the anonymity of consumers.

“When we launched in 2017, we had two-thirds of the world covered: North America, South America, Europe and Africa,” says Cook, adding that Asia Pacific from Australia to Japan, China, and part of India was added a year later.

“Our forthcoming release, which is outside in the Fourth Quarter (Q4), is a large improvement to the ceremony at which we’re further increasing our policy and accessibility options around the globe and are raising our bandwidth with more interesting programs,” says Cook, signaling the bandwidth has improved by a factor of five and also the Asia/Pacific area, which now utilizes C-band connectivity, will probably be incorporating Ku-band for a portion of the area.

“While our core satellite network is designed to distribute the bitcoin blockchain, we’ve also enabled service where anybody can send any data they want via our satellite network and then pay for it in bitcoin,” he adds.

Leveraging Open Source Satellites for Constellation Collaboration

Singapore startup SpaceChain, a partner of Cloud Constellation, is constructing an open-source satellite community that incorporates blockchain. The organization’s CEO and creator Zee Zheng considers that these technologies will allow a new age of seamless international cooperation.

The business introduced two blockchain-enabled satellite payloads into orbit over SpaceChain’s initial year of operation and three more are planned in the following 18 weeks.

“Our satellite payloads are the only blockchain-enabled satellite payloads in the world right now,” says Zheng. “We have witnessed how the smartphone industry has evolved and we see this trend for software-defined satellites. If they offer a secure development environment with an open-source platform, there is great potential.”

SpaceChain now supplies a satellite crypto wallet over SpaceChain’s personal network, enabling transactions without using the world wide web.

Zheng says new area companies are wanting to utilize the blockchain to forge partnerships with different businesses. They would like to explore constructing a joint constellation collectively by sharing with an open-source platform.

“We want to have multiple startups launch satellites to form a constellation with a shared protocol,” says Zheng. “It will no longer be one company launching 70 to form the constellation; it can be five companies and each of them launches 10 to 15, to form the constellation together. We believe blockchain creates many new opportunities to partner — which is one thing the industry is lacking.”

Zheng notes that SpaceChain would like to use open-source distributed technology to earn more application uses instances and, at precisely the exact same time, more decentralized networks to the space market.

Identifying Hurdles to Widespread Blockchain Space Adoption

There are some issues that need to be overcome before blockchain programs become mainstream.

IBM’s Altaf believes the largest problems is that blockchain is a process-based alternative which needs organizations to agree to operate a specific way, something which could possibly be challenging in the satellite market where businesses are often reluctant to share info.

“Big players like Amazon and Walmart can force their suppliers to adhere to their blockchain network because they are their biggest customer,” he says. Not true for the satellite industry.

Another issue concerns the hardware differences between terrestrial and distance networks. The distance blockchain demands radiation-hardened hardware.

“Most of this architecture is proprietary — we have to do a lot more work to get Intel or ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) processors, currently used on your phones or to run your computer, hardened enough to work in space.”

Irrespective of the operational versions, all space blockchain advocates agree on something: the potential for blockchain software in distance is unstoppable and will result in unprecedented new service capacities.

Blockchain, LEO Market Spark More Nimble Satellite-Manufacturing Models

Keeping pace with the explosion in LEO constellations and satellite versions which are leveraging technologies such as AI and blockchain demand new revolutionary approaches not just in orbit but using satellite payload layout, based on Brian Rider, CTO of LeoStella.

Formed as a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries, that delivers the Dark Sky geospatial intelligence assistance, LeoStella looked in the exploding LEO marketplace and recognized that it had a much better, nimbler version for constructing satellites which could benefit from inventions like blockchain and AI.

“We don’t think of ourselves as a traditional small satellite market … but as a forward-thinking, constellation and space infrastructure provider,” says Rider.

The business helps commercial businesses such as Cloud Constellation that need to make value-added cloud solutions from area infrastructure ascertain the best means to do it in a design standpoint.

It has the ability to create around 40 satellites per year within their Seattle mill, which follows procedures and manufacturing methodologies utilized in the automotive sector. In accordance with Rider, LeoStella’s manager of programs formerly led the distribution chain for Tesla’s semi-truck jobs.

“We have the ability to take satellites or long-lead components off the production line and quickly repurpose them to create a first-to-market advantage,” he says.

The business also provides complete transparency to its own manufacturing line, together with LeoStella and clients together making decisions regarding risk and schedule.

“We provide opportunities to bring in new technology — if a new communications or camera system comes on the market, we can integrate those into production where satellites are actively being produced,” he says.

UNICEF will start accepting crypto donation, but will not convert it to fiat

UNICEF will start accepting crypto donation, but will not convert it to fiat

by | Oct 15, 2019 | News

Will charities and worldwide organizations help in the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Cryptocurrency adoption took a significant step forward with information that UNICEF will shortly be accepting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) contributions.

Christina Lomazzo along with her blockchain team at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will allow the donation of cryptocurrencies.

This pilot program will mark the first moment when the foundation will accept cryptocurrency in the form of donation. The very first donation made will come from the Ethereum Foundation and consists of a contribution of 1 BTC and 10,000 ETH. The pilot program will also be a collaboration with UNICEF USA, UNICEF Australia, UNICEF New Zealand, and UNICEF France.

An important aspect of this program is that UNICEF will not convert the cryptocurrencies into fiat. Instead of mechanically convert them into fiat money, the global organization appears to be interested in HODLing and spending cryptocurrencies.

The idea behind the move is to enhance transparency and increase the number of contributors. With each donation listed on the blockchain, there’s very little space to ‘shed’ funds and what’s visible on the public ledger.

International Organizations Appear to Blockchain Technology

The United Nations and its branches have shown themselves receptive to cryptocurrencies. There’s presently a ‘paradigm change’ happening at the greatest levels of worldwide power which might imply a wave of adoption is forthcoming.

The pro-cryptocurrency place goes much beyond UNICEF. This past year, Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, talked about the chance of utilizing blockchain technologies in solving world problems. The program’s focus is to supply ultra-accessible monetary services and electronic networks from 2030.

UNICEF has taken the bold move of accepting cryptocurrencies and not converting them to liquid cash. Instead, they’re betting long-term on the idea. Let’s hope that other international organizations follow. Let us hope that other organizations will follow.

Consensus 2019 NYC Blockchain Week reveals the new blockchain trends

Consensus 2019 NYC Blockchain Week reveals the new blockchain trends

by | Oct 7, 2019 | News

The cryptosphere got another burst of energy last week as programmers, entrepreneurs, venture vets, policymakers, artists, and fans descended on NYC at the yearly Blockchain Week. ConsenSys’ two-day Ethereal Summit kicked the week off at Pioneer Works, a renovated railroad trail factory in Red Hook, a fitting venue for the leaders of Web3 to design and deliberate the future of the world wide web.

This type of gathering is a rare occasion for a motion that’s so internationally dispersed.

Open source devs will build Web3

78% of businesses utilize open source applications, however, the OpenSSL Software Foundation, whose transportation protocols secure the link between clients and servers and place that reassuring padlock on your browser pub, functions on a budget of less than $2,000 in contributions and beneath a million dollars contract earnings annually.

The absence of incentives in open source growth makes developers stay away from them and leads to serious vulnerability problems in apps (such as the notorious Heartbleed insect which has been inadvertently introduced to the OpenSSL source code repo a couple of years back).

The Gitcoin Founder Kevin Owocki stated that “65% of open source projects have a truck factor of less than two”, which is a serious threat to the future of such projects.

There were serious attempts in the blockchain area — that was based on the principle of available protocols — to create open-source growth economically sustainable for coders. MolochDAO, a crowdsourced financing initiative to encourage Ethereum infrastructure jobs, obtained a 4,000 ETH contribution last week by Joe Lubin, Vitalik Buterin, many associates from ConsenSys, along with the Ethereum Foundation. From its own ethical promotion platform Codefund to its Patreon-like Grants Program, Gitcoin is among the very notable and multi-pronged campaigns encouraging open source maintainers from the blockchain area.

The systems of the future will be antifragile

Bitcoin was created as a way to modify the present financial system that’s ineffective, politically irresponsible, and badly misaligned in regard to incentivizing great behaviour. Over ten decades after, Bitcoin still proceeds to offset the bad ideas of our political and monetary systems.

The grand majority attending NY Blockchain Week shared the idea of antifragility. This notion was expressed at a publication written by the prestigious Nassim Taleb, in which he describes “Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty.”

Travis Kling also discussed the fragility of both bitcoin along with other crypto assets, saying “This is a hedge against irresponsibility from governments and central bankers…the world is waking up to the value of a hedge against quantitative easing.”

More importantly, she expressed her views about electronic resources, saying, “There is not any fault tolerance at the electronic assets and that is a feature, not a bug. It’d be a pity if the growth of bitcoin would stick to the growth of the incumbent markets”

Zero-knowledge systems are the magic wand for solving Ethereum’s privacy paradox

Hard math is exactly what it is taking to resolve Ethereum’s solitude paradox, the struggle of reconciling the blockchain’s transparency (for validating transactions) with the demand for information privacy and confidential transactions.

While Ethereum does not support names such as Penn and Teller or even Houdini, it will have Aztec, Ernst & Young, PegaSys, along with other cutting-edge startups focusing on zero-knowledge proof technologies and construction native solitude.

PegaSys provides an extensive package of production-grade offerings which streamlines the process of conducting an Ethereum customer for enterprises. Pantheon implements Orion as a personal transaction manager and may also utilize AZTEC’s effective zero-knowledge privacy protocol for information independently on a permissioned network.

At Ethereal, Tom Pocock, CEO of Aztec discussed how ZK will be available within another fortnight. His demonstration included slides using a thermometer which got hotter when the math got harder. It was a cue for individuals to take out their phones whenever they had been uninterested in mathematics. It got hot around Boneh Boyen Signatures and Elliptic Curve pairings.

It is apparent the ZK tech will be quite beneficial in finance and banking for personal payments and other private transactions. Many ZK business help make “Lego kits” for people and companies to construct customized assets for their own choosing without understanding about the mathematically intricate cryptography which makes the machine function.

Ten or twenty years ago, Tom Pockock even predicted utilizing ZK technologies to acquire a “proof of income” to use in the lender to acquire a mortgage.

There has been steady progress on zero-knowledge evidence methods, which are assisting protocol engineers to take care of the issue of assessing a piece of evidence without studying it. Olivier Bégassat, Applied Researcher in PegaSys, believes the PCP Theorem that underpins ZK systems is “mindbendingly magnificent.”

Decentralized finance is the leading narrative

#Defi has removed among the most resounding narratives inside the crypto ecosystem also has been mostly driven by Ethereum.

Ethereal even showcased defi software with Austin Griffith’s hot wallet, that was utilized to buy a meal.

The Internet 3.0 headline still exists in several people vision for the future of crypto, nevertheless, the open fund has taken the lead as brand new derivatives markets and financing procedures have emerged Ethereum. For many people, accomplishing such a goal is sufficient. Ryan Selkis, more known as TwoBitIdiot and Creator of the research company Messari, clarified his thesis to get Ethereum:

“Ethereum is settlement layer for decentralized finance where bitcoin is settlement layer for a store of value. Ethereum will become the decentralized finance chain. That’s the winning outcome and everything else will be on its own chain or be interoperable.”

Regulators continue to join the conversation

At Consensus, U.S.Representative Tom Emmer intends to reintroduce the Safe Harbor for Taxpayers using Forked Assets that could help taxpayers who maintain cryptocurrency caused by blockchain network breaks, or challenging forks. Especially, the bill will stop the IRS from penalizing unreported crypto resources gained through tough drives until the IRS issues clear advice about their regulatory remedy.

Caitlin Long was current on several panels during the whole week sharing a lot of her ideas regarding crypto regulation. She pointed out just how many double standards exist when analyzing regulators handle non-crypto institutions when compared with crypto associations.

The Former Congressman and presidential candidate think that the telephone by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) to prohibit cryptocurrency buys at the U.S. is a bad idea. 2020 Presidential Candidate, Andrew Yang made an appearance revealing his perspectives about crypto asset regulation, presuming that authorities will need to explain their guidelines.

The enterprise blockchain marketplace is open for business

Business blockchain offerings are moving full-stack and supplying robust marketplaces that employ solutions for businesses in different industries. As an example, ConsenSys-backed Kaleido established a brand new business-to-business (B2B) tech heap throughout blockchain week which includes different plug and play characteristics, such as advantage registry, record shop and app-to-app messenger, token issuance, and much more. The Kaleido market has over 40 service or product offerings for businesses to match their customized business requirements.

Especially, Microsoft has been leading the charge in the heritage world. Before blockchain week, Microsoft published a blockchain programmer kit to its people Ethereum blockchain and Quorum. The programmer kit also empowers users to utilize Solidity and Truffle. Microsoft clients will now have the choice to utilize Microsoft Azure along with the package of blockchain software to expedite blockchain installation, lower prices, and include enhanced governance characteristics.

Throughout blockchain week Microsoft announced a partnership with GE Aviation to follow engine components in addition to the launch of a decentralized identity to the internet 3.0 world. As more companies are starting to accept the transformative power of blockchain technologies, they will look towards the present players to grab them up to speed and utilize their present solutions.