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Tag: marketing

Why the Service Industry Needs Blockchain, Explained

Why the Service Industry Needs Blockchain, Explained

How is the service industry doing?

The service is developing not as fast as it could. Like any other business, the service industry is trying to keep up to date. But there are still some issues slowing down the progress. Money. It’s not that simple to get the money to start a new business or to expand an already existing one. It’s not always possible to get a loan since banks may think you are too young or too old, your credit story is not good enough, or your idea will not be in demand.

Personnel. In current realities, the service requires highly-qualified staff. It’s not enough to find competent people and train them. If you have a network of businesses, you have to make an effort to work them as a whole one. Information. Nowadays, information is one of the most important resources. The Internet has made information transfer faster and easier. However, there are a lot of people involved in the transfer chain. Delays in communication between the links take a large amount of time.

How can Blockchain help?

Ongoing Blockchain technology is able to solve the above-mentioned issues. Money. You can launch your own ICO to get the money to start a new business or expand the existing one. If the idea is great and presented properly, it can raise a lot of funds. Besides, hedge and venture funds show their interest in Blockchain. Smart contracts will make the transactions fast and reliable.

Personnel. The distributed ledger facilitates finding a good employer. Blockchain makes it easier to check the education, skills, work experience, and much more. Moreover, technology provides the communication between departments and managers which improves personnel management. Information. The decentralized system allows sharing information promptly. All information is rapidly distributed between the nodes. The information stored in Blockchain cannot be changed and at the same time, you have access to see how the business processes are going.

How can Blockchain improve hospitality?

Hotels will get more information about tourists and facilitated check-ins. Blockchain stores all the information. Thus, if a tourist checked in a hotel, it would simplify next bookings and the registration process. If a hotel is a part of international hotel chains, keeping track of all the guests is not an easy task. The ledger monitors the number of bookings and updates the information about available rooms in real time. Any violation or even attempt will become publicly available. And an so you can check a tourist’s  or a hotel’s, and its staff, reputation before making any reservations. The payments have low fees and are processed quickly from any place on the planet.

And what about catering business?

Restaurants can track all the data about supplies. Each day catering business has to communicate with a lot of food, logistic companies, etc. The supply chain is rather long. It requires a lot of paperwork, transactions, confirmations, and other procedures that require a huge amount of time. The decentralized system allows to get necessary information much faster and accelerate the processes. Each food product has its own shelf time. Expired products are a very bad spot on the reputation of the food brand. Blockchain fixes all the data about the food, storage conditions, delivery time and indicates rotten products.

Why does car business need Blockchain?

There is a lack of communication between the participants of the business. The car industry is a dynamically developing business. In 2016, more than 78 mln cars were sold in the world. There are a lot of institutions involved: manufacturers, banks, drivers, repair stations, etc. Each of them possesses information that is useful for other participants. For example, manufacturers need to know what kind of breakages a particular model has and how often it happens to produce the necessary amount of spare parts.

There are different decentralized platforms, like Uservice that aim at bringing together all the parties involved and create a unified database about cars. For instance, a car owner can register their car and get paid for the information that they will provide to the platform. So every registered car record will be updated and users of the platform can track what kind of issues this model has or doesn’t have.

Can the decentralized technology be used in insurance?

It can increase trust between clients and insurance companies, prevent frauds. Insurance companies note that there are trust issues among their clients. The system of insurance calculation, high prices and low efficiency discourage consumers. Blockchain technology is transparent, it can restore the trust to how the system works. Smart contracts allow to make insurance contracts clearer and more reliable. The code will be automatically executed if an incident happens. Authenticity verification is one of the biggest problems in the field. Using decentralized register, manufacturers, customers, insurance companies, and others can see all the history of the product, even check if it was stolen or is a counterfeit.

How can Blockchain help e-commerce?

Decentralization will bring transparency, credibility, fast transactions and low fees. Trust comes to the forefront again. Trading is made from a different part of the world. You cannot see a consumer or a seller. There is no guarantee that you won’t get involved with a fraudster. Blockchain makes all the processes see-through to everybody. Smart contracts make sure you receive money or goods/services. Plus, there is no third party involved and it reduces expenses significantly.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions, Call Me, 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Once the cryptocurrency bubble bursts, there may be real innovation and a solid valuation case for many coins

Once the cryptocurrency bubble bursts, there may be real innovation and a solid valuation case for many coins

  • Once the hype around cryptocurrencies dies down,
    there may be some real value created
  • This could come from some of the other digital coins
    on the market such as Ethereum and Ripple
  • Valuing these might become easier when
    they are used in the real world

The world of cryptocurrencies

is one of the most divisive topics in finance right now. On the one hand, figures like J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a "fraud" and dubbed those trading it "stupid." On the other hand, there are those who see cryptocurrencies as one of the most revolutionary forces in finance. But amid the debate, there are a lot of people asking how to value this stuff and why bitcoin has traded nearly as high as $20,000.

The answer right now is simple: There are no fundamentals.

Even Robert Shiller, who won the Nobel Prize in 2013 for assessing asset prices, recently remarked that the value of bitcoin is "exceptionally ambiguous." There's no doubt that there is immense amount of speculation in the cryptocurrency market. But when the bubble bursts and the hype dies down, that is where we may find value and it all comes down to the use cases for the different coins on the market.

When bitcoin was created in 2009, the aim was to be an electronic cross-border payments system. The problem now is that bitcoin transactions are at record highs with faster traditional payment systems actually proving a better means. It's hard to say bitcoin has an inherent value beyond the belief of the people trading it. But as many have said, it could become "digital gold," in which case the price is likely to go higher. But looking forward, it's highly likely that other digital tokens could surpass bitcoin because of their utility.

Take a look at Ethereum. The company bills itself as a blockchain platform for others to build apps on. Blockchain is the underlying technology behind bitcoin and acts as a decentralized ledger of transactions. But its uses span far beyond bitcoin. Ethereum has its own blockchain which companies like Microsoft and J.P. Morgan are experimenting with.

Ethereum is specifically designed for so-called "smart contracts" which are pieces of software that execute a contract once certain conditions are met by all parties involved. This removes the need for complex paperwork and errors. Ripple is another blockchain company that is working on cross-border payments across different currencies in seconds. The digital coin created by the company called XRP, acts as a bridging currency to help facilitate transactions.

Both Ethereum and Ripple have seen stunning rallies this year, but both are in the early stages of their experiments. But in the future, valuing them could be easier. For example, if Ripple began to process a fraction of the trillions of dollars that is transacted across borders, we could start to put a price on one XRP. If Ethereum was responsible for a number of trade finance deals, we could use a similar valuation metric.

Of course, this is all very simplistic, and the biggest risk is that people lose belief in these platforms and cryptocurrencies. They are also in danger of being replaced by something better. Cryptocurrencies or digital tokens are here to stay but it's unlikely they'll survive in their current form. One big plus of this current bubble bursting however could be that we get some real innovation across a number of industries, with valuations a little clearer to understand.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions, Call Me, 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

We used a cryptocurrency miner as a heater this winter and it really worked

We used a cryptocurrency miner
as a heater this winter
and it really worked


Surfing through the web back in October,

I stumbled upon an odd but genuinely fascinating contraption: a Russian cryptocurrency miner that leverages the heat it generates from stacking Ethereum to keep your room warm. Shortly after I wrote about this unusual device, Comino – the Russian-based startup behind this invention – reached out to us and kindly offered to ship one of its miners for us to test this winter. We gladly took them up on their offer, and a couple of weeks later, the Comino was already installed at our cozy office in Amsterdam.

After running the crypto-heater for a little over a month now, we are finally ready to share our experience with the device. But before we get to the actual performance, let’s get the technicalities out of the way. Determined to deliver the device in optimal condition, Comino co-founder Evgeny Vlasov flew in directly from Moscow to Amsterdam, along with his business partner Anatoliy Knyazev (not to be mistaken with the eponymous DC Comics villain KGBeast).  The duo swiftly set up the crypto-heater and proceeded to give us a run-down on the technology that powers the machine.

Vlasov and Knyazev first came with the idea for Comino after they spotted an opportunity to bridge the technological gap in the bludgeoning cryptocurrency market by bringing a mining solution that even crypto-rookies can put to use. As such, the Comino is among the first miners specifically aimed at regular consumers – and not strictly hardcore crypto-enthusiasts. “It is an overused statement these days, but we want to be the Apple of crypto-miners,” Knyazev told TNW. “We want to make a product that is easy for everyone to use. Ideally, you won’t even need to read through the documentation, you just plug it in and it starts working.”

Having said that, Comino, which runs a customized version of Ubuntu, can easily be modified for tasks other than mining. Indeed, Vlasov told us Comino often gets enqiuiries from researchers, involved with high-intensity computing tasks, who are interested in re-purposing the machine for other uses.The reason for that is not strictly the components housed inside its metallic case, but its efficient and sturdy build quality. Vlasov and Knyazev too are first to admit that the real value in Comino – as far as hardware goes at least – is in the proprietary components that connect all the GPUs packed inside the crypto-miner.

As Vlasov explains,

unlike home-made miners, which tend to be rather bulky in size and often make very loud noises, the Comino was designed to be much more discrete and accommodating. It was also equipped with proprietary water-cooling system that Vlasov and Knyazev claim will keep the machine alive for years – a lifespan much longer than that of most home-made mining rigs. Comino’s website claims a maximum noise level of around 30 decibels, and while I’m no noise expert, the review unit we tested was pretty silent – much quieter than an actual fan-heater.

In fact, the noise is so low that at one point Knyazev worryingly misidentified the sound from the little fish aquarium we have in our office with that of the Comino. Indeed, the crypto-heater is less noisy than an aquarium. Here are a couple videos that will give you a better idea about the cacophony home-built miners cause: In addition to its proprietary water-cooling system, the device also comes with a slew of custom-made components – like cables, connectors and risers – to ensure the longevity of the device.

The reason Comino opted to produce their own risers

was because industry alternatives couldn’t offer the same resistance to high-intensity signals and waves that mining rigs have to deal with. Vlasov estimates that the compendium of little touches like these ought to keep the miner up-and-running for at least five to 10 years. As far as the rest of the innards go, the Comino N1 (the model we had a chance to test) boasts eight ASUS P106-100 6G graphic cards mounted on an ASUS PRIME Z270-A Motherboard, as well as 3 NOCTUA NF-A14 PPC-2000 PWM fans, a customized Black Ice NEMESIS GTX420 radiator and 2 Chieftech PROTON BDF-750C 750W power supply units.

All of this oomph amounts to about 1kW of power consumption per hour. Make sure to check your local electricity rates to get an idea of how much that will add up to your energy bills. The contraption stands 63.5cm tall, with a length of 45.9cm and a width of17.5cm, which means you could easily fit it in an idle corner of your room and forget about it, while it does the mining for you. And this is precisely what we did. Once we installed the mining rig in our office, which practically included connecting the crypto-heater to the internet via the web-based dashboard system developed by Comino, it automatically created a wallet and began mining Ethereum. As easy as this.

Of course, if you already have a wallet, you still have the option to connect it to the dashboard. You can also connect any other mining rig to the Comino dashboard, in case you want to follow all of your mining efforts in one place. Among other things, the online dashboard shows a number of statistics the Comino developers had programmed to monitor, including the current and average hashrate at which the miner is solving cryptographic puzzles, the current and average temperature at which it operates, as well as the unpaid balance of Ethereum you’ve accumulated. It also shows stats for the temperature of each separate GPU.

Since installing the miner on November 16, it has so far transferred a total of little over 1.2 ETH to my designated wallet – this equals to roughly 1 ETH per month. At the time of writing, my mining returns amount to about $814, according to CoinGecko. The way the system is set-up, the miner will transfer the Ethereum to a wallet of your choice anytime it has mined at least 0.2 ETH. As you can observe in the screenshots below, the Comino N1 maintains an average hashrate of about 200 MH/s, and an average temperature of approximately 60C (±140F) degrees .

While some of this data is visible on the device’s built-in LCD indicator, chances are you will find yourself engaging with the online dashboard much more often than with the actual miner – and this is actually how Vlasov and Knyazev imagine things. Other than a one-off exception to reboot the miner, following a glitch in the LCD display (which had no effect on the actual mining), I hardly ever had to interact with the machine; and this is a good thing, especially for someone who wants to stack on crypto without having to worry about technical issues.

Throughout this one-month trial,

the only issue I experienced with the miner was that – for some reason – its ambient temperature sensor inaccurately picked up the temperature of the GPUs inside (which had just taken a break from mining); this prevented the device from booting up again, until it cooled down a little. But other than that, it ran as smooth as butter. After reporting this minor malfunction to Vlasov, he told us their team is looking into implementing a solution that will allow the machine to turn on, but will only let it mine once it has cooled down to a more suitable temperature.

At $5,000 a piece (currently discounted down to $4,500), the Comino miner is certainly not cheap, but if you’re looking for an easy way to get started with mining cryptocurrency, it definitely does the job. In all fairness, you can probably build a cheaper mining rig, but Vlasov and Knyazev are skeptical about the lasting endurance of recreational mining rigs. Of course, if neither of these options appeal to you, you can always fit your own crypto-miner in the trunk of your Tesla – like this guy set out to do.

And in case you were wondering about how reliable the Comino was as a heater : it certainly kept the temperature high enough to save some energy on heating bills, but not enough to make you turn on the air conditioner. Which is exactly what you want from a a machine that was built to bank on crypto.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions, Call Me, 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

The Taxman Cometh: US, Russian Investors Face New Calls To Pay/more

The Taxman Cometh:
US, Russian
Investors Face New Calls To Pay

Bitcoin traders face new tax obligations

in the US and Russia as authorities keen to get a piece of the action begin ‘tweaking’ laws. As Fortune and others report today, a tax reform amendment Congress passed this week will oblige crypto-to-crypto handlers to pay tax on any gains.  The change in the status quo comes as a low-key change in legislation closes a loophole which previously allowed so-called “like kind exchanges” to occur tax-free.

‘Like kind’ exchanges allowed one cryptocurrency to be exchanged for another without triggering a taxable event, as long as fiat was not involved. This allowed capital gains to continue growing tax free. Now, however, that option will cease to exist in the US, applying only to real estate from 2018 onward. In Russia meanwhile, cryptocurrency sales for fiat are attracting the attention of tax authorities, which now require taxpayers to come clean about any profits. An anonymous holder told local media outlet Business FM about manual declaration of

crypto tax liabilities:

“I don’t think it’s the right approach. More likely lawmakers should create a mechanism through which further transactions can be followed either automatically or via banks.”

Artem Tolkachev, a lawyer who works on behalf of Deloitte, reiterated that the only “possible” way of taxing cryptocurrency transactions was to apply Russia’s blanket 13% rate at the point of conversion to fiat. Fluctuating exchange rates and authorities’ bare-bones understanding of the technology added to the current stalemate in creating an alternative, he added.

 

Exclusive:
Telegram to Release Blockchain Platform, Native Cryptocurrency

The popular encrypted messaging app Telegram will launch

its own Blockchain platform and cryptocurrency, according to sources familiar with the matter. The new platform will be dubbed either “The Open Network” or “Telegram Open Network” (TON) and is supposed to be based on an improved version of Blockchain technology.

Initial reports of the new platform surfaced today from Anton Rozenberg, a former employee of Telegram’s publishing division Telegraph. Rozenberg posted on Facebook what he claims is an advertorial video for the new platform (he did not disclose the source of the video). He also pointed out that TON would aid those under oppressive governments, since they would be able to transfer money natively through the messaging app. This could serve to break the state’s control over citizens’ money, added Rozenberg.

Cointelegraph learned that the currency of TON will be called “Gram” and the platform will be natively integrated with many of the most popular messaging apps (it’s not yet certain which ones). The platform will utilize light wallets, making it unnecessary for users to download a large and unwieldy Blockchain. The TON platform also won’t have to go through a multi-year bootstrap period like most new platforms, since the Telegram app already boasts 180 mln users, according to Bloomberg. Telegram is already immensely popular with the Blockchain community, as cofounder

Pavel Durov proclaimed:

“Like right now, the entire Blockchain and cryptocurrency community just switched to Telegram.”

Cointelegraph has reached out to Durov, but has not yet received a reply. While still not officially confirmed, the creation of TON is compatible with an earlier article from Bloomberg,

which said:

“[Durov] sees Telegram as a charity that he’ll start to monetize early next year, but only enough to fund expansion.”

The Mark Zuckerberg of Russia

The enigmatic Pavel Durov teamed up with his brother to launch Telegram in 2013. The app boasts end-to-end encryption, making it extremely useful for dissidents and ordinary citizens living under oppressive regimes. In fact, according to Bloomberg, Telegram accounts for 40% of Iran’s internet traffic. The Iranian government is so aggrieved by the app’s privacy features that they have charged Durov, in absentia, of terrorism.

Durov isn’t terribly bothered; he’s used to standing up to national governments. He and his brother cofounded Russia’s largest social network, VK, building a company worth over $3 bln. VK was in fact quite similar to Facebook, but whereas Zuckerberg was able to maintain control (and a massive ownership stake), Durov was not.

When he refused to hand over personal user information to Russian authorities, he was forced to sell his stake in the company to one of Putin’s allies. Thus, while Zuckerberg had the option of an IPO, Durov is using an ICO to monetize his creation. After being forced out of VK, Durov left Russia for good, taking with him an estimated $300 mln and 2,000 Bitcoins. He took his substantial wealth with him to St. Kitts and Nevis, investing enough in the Caribbean nation to become a citizen. However, he spends most of his time in Dubai. Durov insists Telegram is not for sale at any price, because his users’ privacy is too valuable

to risk:

“Even for $20 billion, it’s not for sale. That’s a lifetime guarantee.”

An anonymous holder told local media outlet Business FM about manual declaration of crypto

tax liabilities:

“I don’t think it’s the right approach. More likely lawmakers should create a mechanism through which further transactions can be followed either automatically or via banks.”

Artem Tolkachev, a lawyer who works on behalf of Deloitte, reiterated that the only “possible” way of taxing cryptocurrency transactions was to apply Russia’s blanket 13% rate at the point of conversion to fiat. Fluctuating exchange rates and authorities’ bare-bones understanding of the technology added to the current stalemate in creating an alternative, he added.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions, Call Me, 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Blockchain It! Companies Rename Themselves To Bump Up Share Price/more

Blockchain It!
Companies Rename Themselves To Bump Up Share Price

The craze continues as companies begin changing their name

to include the word “Blockchain” and watch their share price soar. As The Verge reports, a spate of renaming shenanigans has seen Long Island Drinks Corp become Long Blockchain, immediately causing its stock to surge 200%. Likewise, a California-based vaping startup Vapetek changed its name to the unlikely Nodechain, while offering only vague promises about its Blockchain-inclusive future plans.

The practice continues what has become a curious phenomenon. In October, Cointelegraph reported on how a veteran yet little-known UK telecommunications company reinvented itself as a notionally Blockchain-centric outfit, adding the term to its company name. Its stock swiftly took off, jumping from £15 ($20) to a high of £84 ($112) in days.

The trend continues in Asia, with Hong Kong tea manufacturer Ping Shan Tea Group now becoming the tenuously tea-linked Blockchain Group Co. How Blockchain impacts the company’s operations or product remains uncertain, with its website making no mention of the technology other than in its new name. In Russia, cryptocurrency-related consumer marketing has taken a more mainstream turn, with Cointelegraph noting how a sushi restaurant chain rolled out an ICO-themed drinks menu, even including a reference to China’s ban. Burger King outlets in the country have also experimented with their own token, which the fast food giant dubbed ‘Whoppercoin.’

ICO to Build Next Generation AI Raises $36 Million in 60 Seconds

SingularityNET raised $36 mln in one minute,

completely selling out of its native AGI tokens. While this is an enormous amount of money to raise in an incredibly short period of time, it’s somewhat unsurprising considering demand. The company asserts that the issue was massively oversubscribed, with 20,000 people registered to participate, seeking to buy $361 mln worth of tokens. The company reduced the number to a more manageable level, according to its press release,

by:

“[Screening] all applicants using layers of algorithms, in addition to manual review, to comply with global KYC/AML regulations. This reduced the pool of contributors to 5,000, but also set a new standard for fundraising via Blockchain with respect to global legislation.”

Artificial general intelligence

SingularityNET aims to create a decentralized marketplace of AIs, where each AI can interact with one another (and pay one another) as needed to solve customers’ problems.

Founder Ben Goertzel gave an example:

“If you need a document summarized, as a user you can put a request into SingularityNet… You may get bids from twenty different document summary nodes…and you may choose one with the right balance of reputation and price.

But now that document summary node if it hits something in the document it can’t deal with, it can outsource that…if the document summary node that you’re paying…hits an embedded video it can outsource that to a video summarizing node and it can then pay it some fraction of the money it was paid. Or, if it sees a quote in Russian…it can outsource that …to a Russian to English translation node that can do that translation, then send it back to the document summary node.”

Popular field

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are hot trends in computing these days, but are largely controlled by massive corporations. These corporate titans develop their own proprietary systems and software and keep it in-house. SingularityNET intends to decentralize this heavily centralized field, allowing developers of AI tools to monetize them and non-corporate users to benefit from them.

As with any new venture, it remains to be seen whether this is even possible, or whether behemoths like Google will forever dominate the field of AI. One thing is certain – there is plenty of interest in decentralized AI systems. SingularityNET’s token sale could not make that any more clear. Just like the Nicholas Cage movie, these tokens were “gone in sixty seconds.”

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions, Call Me, 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

dYdX is a decentralized protocol for cryptocurrency derivatives

dYdX is a decentralized protocol for cryptocurrency derivatives

While some financial derivatives like futures trading

are slowly coming to Bitcoin, we’re still a long time away from these financial products being widely available for the entire cryptocurrency asset class. So dydX is building a decentralized protocol for derivatives, built on the Ethereum blockchain and the 0x protocol. The protocol lets you take out peer-to-peer short sells, long positions and options on any ERC20 token. It also provides the ability for traders to make fully-collateralized loans, which are used to to fund short sellers.

As a refresher, a decentralized protocol means that no single entity controls the process. No one can cancel your order, steal your funds or rip you off as long as the smart contracts powering the protocol are securely written and properly vetted. There are already a few examples of decentralized exchanges like EtherDelta, where you can exchanges crypto assets peer-to-peer. But most of these platforms limit you to exchanging one token for another, which is why dYdX’s focus on more complicated financial positions is unique.

When the platform launches in the spring there will be a decentralized open protocol that anyone can access, as well as a centralized relay built by dYdX that acts as a user interface to the protocol. The UI will look like a traditional trading site but will never take control of user funds, and dYdX will charge a small fee on all trades that use their interface. Of course anyone else can also build private or public interfaces to interact with the dYdX protocol for free. Order books will be off chain with on-chain settlements, which allow for faster trading, especially during times of network congestion.

At first you’ll only be able to trade with ERC20 tokens (and Ethereum itself) but technologies like cross-chain atomic swaps may enable trading of non-Ethereum-based tokens in the future like Bitcoin. dYdX was founded by Antonio Juliano, a former software engineer at Coinbase  and Uber. The startup has raised a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, with participation from Coinbase founders Fred Ehrsam and Brian Armstrong, Elad Gil and others.

Juliano plans on using the funding to build out a team of engineers (it’s currently a one-man shop) and undergo extensive third-party security audits on the protocol before launching. As explained earlier the only thing that could bring down a decentralized protocol is flaws in its code, making crypto security audits very important for any serious decentralized protocol. Both the decentralized protocol and centralized relay are expected to launch around April, with the independent security audits  being the biggest roadblock before launch.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions. Call me 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Blockchain: Shifting From Internet of Information to Internet of Value

Blockchain:
Shifting From Internet of Information
to Internet of Value

There is a growing trend of Blockchain implementation

in the social media industry. This development is changing how the public approaches an ecosystem which has before now been at the mercy of a few individuals in terms of security, commerce, functionality and general control. The significance of social media to everyday life keeps growing with each passing day. In the areas of education, politics, e-commerce and even relationships, the social environment built upon cyberspace is continually proving its relevance as a tool for effective communication between individuals and groups across different parts of the world.

Blockchain can overhaul social media

The emergence of Blockchain technology brings a revolution to this industry which is already visible in the areas of improved reliability and earning opportunities.

Derin Cag, founder of Richtopia says:

“With the rise of Blockchain technology, socio-economic transactions are improving and becoming more democratic as we shift from the Internet of information to the Internet of value.”

According to Cag, there are numerous benefits of having Blockchain technology frameworks within social media platforms.

  • First, it could help tackle fake news through establishing a rewards-based 'credit ratings system' for journalists and bloggers, which then could get embedded to all websites.
  • Second, it could improve user data privacy by providing people an option to opt-in for sharing programmes where they automatically get paid in cryptocurrencies when their data gets sold to third parties.
  • Third, it could improve automation through the use of smart contracts where Blockchains could interact with multiple platforms simultaneously on a user’s behalf. For example Facebook could speak with Twitter, could speak with Instagram, could speak with Reddit and so forth on a much deeper level than available at the time of writing.
  • Fourth, if the social media platform itself is based across distributed ledgers, this could help improve security because for example Bitcoin is one of the only valuable things online which has never been hacked itself.

One major problem that exists within the social media ecosystem and cyberspace, in general, is the significant lack of privacy and indiscriminate sharing of personal data across major social media platforms.

Be careful what you sign

It may not be particularly accurate to assume that these platforms make use of the data of individuals without their permission because almost every single one of these platforms have a ‘Terms and Conditions’ documents which most users agree to without even reading a single line of the usually extremely long document.

Most of the time, the ambiguous statements within these documents empowers the platform owners and administrators to exercise the level of control that we see today. However, this extensive control by the centralized platform owners does not only enable the indiscriminate exposure of users, but it also shuts them out from any possible benefits that they could achieve by the use of their personal data and identity. These are some of the problems that are already being addressed by Blockchain implementation in social media.

The five-year forecast

Abhishek Bhandari, co-founder and VP of Bloomatch tells Cointelegraph that Blockchain is revolutionizing each and every industry at the moment. He notes that the major attraction of various sectors towards Blockchain is the basics of Blockchain for maintaining data on multiple and

decentralized nodes.

“I assume in next five years most of the platforms in digital space would use Blockchain.”

Bhandari affirms that Social Media has become a very important and indispensable part of human existence and Blockchain technology would give a sense of protection and satisfaction to all users. He explains that current social media platforms have many drawbacks in terms of data security and cyber crimes, problems which he is certain that Blockchain technology will eventually address effectively

All about attention

Dor Konforty, CEO of Synereo elaborates that the primary purpose of the marketing, content, and features of Facebook, YouTube and most other modern media platforms is to increase the number of hours each user engages with the platform, to the point where it may disrupt their lives, so that they can capture and sell more of their attention as well as information about their behavior. However, Konforty explains that without a centralized entity profiting from this, and with value generated flowing directly to users through intermediary-less interactions, new platforms will adapt their business models to rely on added-on services rather than on practices which have already been proven to be harmful to the health of their userbases.

Konforty also notes the complexity of monetization on social media:

“Monetization is another deep trouble; creators of original content are in a position where the method they chose for publishing their creations defines their method of monetization, if existent. While YouTube shares some of their proceeds with creators, Facebook, Twitter and the like don't do even that.”

Ultimately, without intermediaries shaping the discourse and being in full control of the available content, all geared towards their bottom lines, the space of possible social and economic interactions will expand greatly, benefiting all involved. Likewise, without huge datastores immediately available to centralized entities, dystopian scenarios such as allocating scores to citizens based on their online activity and adherence to the mandated way of living may be averted. This is the promise of the Blockchain.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions. Call me 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Qtum Bridging Gap Between East and West With BlockShow Asia

Qtum Bridging Gap Between
East and West With BlockShow Asia

Cointelegraph continues updating you about the companies

that made significant input to the recent BlockShow Asia conference in Singapore. This time we will discover a company called Qtum and speak with the CEO Patrick Dai. Qtum joined BlockShow Asia because they hope that they can enlighten people with the value of their technology and they know if they want to do that they need to support the industry. Qtum is claimed to be a Blockchain project that bridges the gap between Bitcoin, Ethereum and the other parts of the whole

Crypto/Blockchain field.

“Combining East and West, the advantages of several projects with our own innovations it’s what makes our team and our technology so great.”

What is Qtum?

Qtum is an open source Blockchain project that is developed by the Singapore-based Qtum Foundation. Qtum is a hybrid Blockchain application platform. Qtum’s core technology combines a fork of Bitcoin core, an Account Abstraction Layer allowing for multiple Virtual Machines including the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Proof-of-Stake consensus aimed at

tackling industry use cases.

“We believe this will allow Smart Contracts and Decentralized Applications to run on a familiar foundation while offering a robust environment for developers.”

Patrick Dai joined the Blockchain project in 2012. He was the first of 50 people in China who knew anything about Bitcoin. In 2015, he wanted to create something new to help the industry- that was the birth of Qtum. Patrick stated at

BlockShow Asia:

“The whole cryptocurrency is a small circle we need to work together, we need a union so that’s the reason we built Qtum.”

From the open source software evolution he believed he should make something more edgy, reinvent the wheel. Qtum uses Bitcoin and proof of stake as a consensus. Patrick wanted Qtum to become a layered design. They have a decentralized governance protocol where everyone can make a decision if you are a coin holder. Most of Blockchain is based on the proof of work- Satoshi’s original decision – but now the idea is changing the Blockchain is becoming more centralized.

He comments:

“I believe that proof of stake is the new trend, that is a part of the reason why Qtum from the very beginning is using proof of stake. Also, I think right now the usability is a disaster for a lot of people, its super hard to manage your private key, to manage your money. Right now for the smart contract we are using Solidity, but Solidity is a new development language, we do not have too many developers who are masters in Solidity.”

Part of Qtum’s appeal to IoT comes from our proof-of-stake design, Qtum’s ability to execute smart contracts from light clients, and their lightning network and x86 virtual machine which are in the works. At BlockShow Asia Patrick explained how the IoT industry’s little regulation allows it to innovate faster, especially when it comes to Blockchain technology. Devices and things can be given identities and accounts to interact machine-to-machine in ways never before possible.

Qtum at BlockShow Asia

At BlockShow Asia 2017, Qtum was not only one of the main sponsors, but also participated in the event as an exhibitor. That’s how the Qtum team explains the company’s main goal in being part of

the BlockShow Asia exhibition:

“Since our industry changes so rapidly, we need to be aware of all the innovations coming onto the scene. I think engaging with the community, seeing how sentiment changes, and what technologies have made recent breakthroughs is important for Qtum to stay up-to-date”.

According to John Scianna, Marketing Director at Qtum, the audience which came to visit the company’s booth during the conference was quite diverse: “It ranged from people just hearing about Blockchain to Qtum fans.” Moreover, Qtum CEO Patrick Dai performed as a speaker on the first day of the conference, speaking about the future of Blockchain and IoT, which he believes is one of the most promising sectors to be empowered with Blockchain technology.

Patrick comments:

“We believe that Blockchain IoT applications will really take off in this coming year. Blockchain technology offers a number of advantages to this industry. Currently, there’s several competing communication technologies for IoT devices, but if we can develop a framework and some standards, we can make some advancements.”

Future plans

Qtum is building the bridge between the Blockchain and traditional worlds. For far too long, the industry has been limited by the amount of developers that could be trained to learn Solidity. They will have an x86 VM prototype running on the test network in early 2018 along with a whole range of wallets and developer tools that will increase the accessibility and utility of the network. Qtum is highly ambitious on Qtum’s x86 VM accessibility: “With Qtum’s x86 VM we will help give access to the millions of developers that know traditional programming languages like C, C++, Rust, Haskell, etc. so that they can become dapp developers.”

In addition, Qtum just released their latest Qt wallet, which allows people to interact with smart contracts and QRC20 tokens. This is a significant milestone for the Qtum community since now they can unleash the full potential of their dapps. Stay tuned and excited about their release of an updated roadmap with even more details coming shortly! Make sure to stay up to date with Cointelegraph! We will be making updates of interviews and influential insights learned from BlockShow Asia. You can enjoy more BlockShow-related materials at our official Social Media channels and make sure to stay tuned for some fresh announcements which are coming up soon.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions. Call me 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

One in Three Millennials Will Own Cryptocurrency by the End of 2018

One in Three Millennials Will Own Cryptocurrency by the End of 2018

Bitcoin continues to attract a lot of attention all over the world.

Whether or not it makes for a great investment remains to be determined by the masses. Even though the initial Bitcoin craze has died down quite a bit, there are still plenty of Millennials who are showing an interest in the world’s leading cryptocurrency. In fact, it is expected that one in three members of this demographic will invest in any cryptocurrency by late 2018.

Cryptocurrencies Remain Very Popular

It is evident the recent Bitcoin price growth has attracted a lot of attention over the past year. With its value soaring to new heights, everyone wants to ensure they are on the Bitcoin train before it leaves the station. At the same time, one has to acknowledge there may not be too many more Bitcoin price gains in the next few weeks and months, although anything can happen in the world of crypto. Most people will acknowledge this ecosystem is about so much more than Bitcoin, though, as the major altcoins have appreciated in value as well.

Thanks to the Millennials, things will get very interesting moving forward. Right now, around 5% of this demographic has already invested in various cryptocurrencies, which is a more-than-solid number already. However, this percentage will keep on growing, and it is expected that nearly 33% of all Millennials will hold at least one cryptocurrency by the end of 2018. Which currencies those will be exactly remains to be determined. London Block Exchange recently performed a study to determine how this demographic feels about different cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin is still incredibly popular, most people also acknowledge 2018 may very well be the year of prominent altcoins. How high these values can soar is anybody’s guess, though, as most major currencies have seen major gains this year. No one will even come close to challenging Bitcoin, although it is evident the world’s leading cryptocurrency is far from perfect in its current form.

Millennials are turning to cryptocurrency

because it is more attractive than traditional investments. Moreover, a large portion of this demographic feels left behind by these traditional options. Neither properties nor pensions are necessarily all that profitable for the younger generation to invest in right now. Pensions may not even be around by the time most Millennials reach retirement. Things are not looking all that great in the world of traditional finance right now; that much is evident.

Combine this lack of appeal with the general distrust most Millennials have for banks and financial institutions, and it only becomes clearer why cryptocurrencies will continue to surge. There is a vast difference between the younger generation’s view of money and finance and how older people perceive them right now. Whether or not this means we will see an even larger influx of new cryptocurrency investors remains to be seen. For now, it seems such growth is almost inevitable.

There is also a general sense of regret among Millennials for not having bought into cryptocurrency sooner. Rest assured a lot of people around the world share this sentiment, as all values have soared beyond people’s wildest expectations. Although it remains to be seen what the future holds in regard to various cryptocurrencies, things may certainly intensify over the next few months as Millennials continue to invest in these markets.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions. Call me 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Why Blockchain Will Save the Agency Business

Why Blockchain Will Save
the Agency Business

 

Now it's time to turn our attention

Last month, I proposed a new disruptive agency model that outlines the operational and organizational structure of the agency of the future. Now it's time to turn our attention to the most important jigsaw piece: the question of the disruptive agency's business model. Like the scene from "The Graduate" in which Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) learns the secret to success in one word, "plastic," the silver-bullet answer for agencies is "blockchain."

I realize there's a lot of "buzzy" talk about blockchain. But blockchain isn't about technology at all. Rather, it's about new business models that fundamentally change how business will be done. As Emily Becher, SVP AT Samsung NEXT International, explains: "Blockchain is a distribution of trust that can shift the distribution of power …." Don't be put off by the geek-speak. Blockchain represents the biggest new revenue opportunity for agencies since 2005, before the industry was taken over by a few big ad networks, black box platforms and fraud. In 2005, ad tech was approached with a "wait and see attitude" because agencies didn't see the business model. Ten years later, the business model is clear and agencies took the biggest hit.

In a reversal of fortune, instead of technology creating more opacity as usual, blockchain is the technology of trust agencies need to protect and act on their clients' best behalf. What's disruptive about blockchain for agencies is that it powers a new and vital "trust" role for agencies, ensuring the quality of the entire advertising supply, heretofore impossible for agencies to execute. With blockchain, "trust" can become a monetizable asset for agencies three ways.

Blockchain allows agencies to diversify campaigns efficiently by breaking the lock of the big ad duopoly.

Facebook and Google capture 70% of all U.S. ad dollars because, for agencies, these platforms scale easily. Yet this concentration of so many ad dollars into so few outlets puts agencies and their advertisers at a huge disadvantage, with little control over campaign execution. Blockchain solves this problem because it decentralizes "transactional" control, so that agencies can efficiently deal directly with many digital outlets, like local media, to improve the quality of campaigns. In this new environment, savvy agencies can create engaging user experiences organized around verified audiences who are engaged on specific topics in real time.

Blockchain eliminates the need for "black box middlemen" who bleed ad budgets (and results) for advertisers.

Blockchain aims its "decentralization arrow" at the heart of ad tech middlemen (ad networks, exchanges and SaaS platforms) because its distributed ledger architecture is a trusted framework with which parties can directly interact. No need for "transaction arbitrators" or external SaaS players, all of who saw spectacular financial growth at the direct expense of advertiser results, due to an erosion of active media dollars.

Blockchain breaks the financial influence tech firms have on marketing.

Let's face it. Technologists drove ad tech to suit the needs of investors first and marketers second, which is why we are left with a complex, dysfunctional landscape of epic proportions. Right now, blockchain is being largely left to the technologists, who have a propensity to solve technical problems in complex ways. For instance, one blockchain venture plans to run 100,000 simultaneous blockchains to overcome the severe blockchain transaction limit of 7-10 per minute. This approach may be imaginative, but its complexity is daunting, covering issues as diverse as energy management (blockchain consumes crazy amounts of energy) to latency issues. Yet this is what is getting funded. The nascent blockchain business is being shaped by technologists, not agencies, and that could mean agencies will miss a new revenue opportunity, one they haven't seen in over a decade and are unlikely to see again for another decade.

The most important change agencies need right now is a change of attitude. Blockchain can disproportionately allow agencies to save the industry, as they save themselves. If agencies had 2005 to do again — I bet a lot would be different. It's a "back to the future" moment when Dr. Brown declares: "If my calculations are correct … you gonna see some serious stuff," and for the disruptive agencies, this is gonna be awesome.

Chuck Reynolds


Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions. Call me 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden