- Startup uses Human Body Heat for Crypto Mining!
- The Amazing Dynamics around Bitcoin Cash!
- Estonia gets involved with ECB: Estcoins should come!
- Bosch Group invests in IOTA!
- Crypto Finance AG completes a 16 million Financing Round on the Way to the Swiss Banking License!
- South Korea: Youbit Crypto Exchange got Second Time Hacked!
While many passionately like to speculate on how many of our jobs will be taken over by robots and artificial intelligence in the near future, no one seems to come up with solid alternatives. A thinking Dutch startup, on the other hand, believes that human beings should begin to capitalize on their bodies ... and no, not how you would imagine.
The Institute of Human Obsolescence (IoHO), founded in 2015, is based in The Hague and presents itself as an organization dedicated to the value of how people from biological and data-generating work can make a profit through art and research projects.
One of the IoHO's most impressive research projects and art installations is its body suit, which absorbs excess human body heat for use in cryptocurrency mining. Yes, you read it right. IoHO has created a body suit that uses thermoelectric generators to store body heat and convert it into usable electricity.
Image source: IoHO
This electricity was then used for crypto-mining, with the IoHO choosing to digitally mine recently-created currencies, as these offer greater growth potential in terms of value. 37 workers were responsible for 212 joint hours to generate a total of 127,210 milliwatts of electricity and to mine 16,954 coins. 80 percent of the revenue went to the workers, while the rest flowed to the institute.
"I think that art is able to explain abstract things and that you can make something happen through art. With this project, I would like to raise questions or ignite ideas, "said IoHO founder Manuel Beltrán.
Another unconventional IoHO art and research project is to initiate a conversation about how large companies are currently capitalizing on the massive amounts of data we generate.
Companies like Google and Facebook use our data to make huge sums of money, but the IoHO envisioned a world where we, as "data workers," get the opportunity to make that money. The institution is of the assumption that all wealth generated from data should be distributed evenly.
Each swiping, scrolling, posting, clicking and texting reveals a lot about our personality and behavior, and adds value the other way round. Beltrán therefore postulates:
For this to happen, the IoHO proposes a distribution system, which they named "Basic Data Income". In this system, each participant receives the same amount of money in return for their data. Rather than picking the information generated by attendees, the IoHO gathers users' unique finger gestures with a motion sensor, choreography, or money that is fair value for the work.
"How exactly these movements are converted into money, is still unclear to me, but fortunately, the artists themselves are currently asking themselves this question, quote:" At this session, we ask ourselves, at what point our automated habits become a choreography and when that choreography becomes a form of work. "
Here it is to be hoped that they will find an answer to this question.
Artist, activist, researcher and IoHO founder Manuel Beltrán starts such projects to get people thinking about the scenario that robots and algorithms replace human labor. He explained it like this:
BitPay, Coinbase, Blockchain.info, Mycelium - most of the big Bitcoin companies get involved with Bitcoin Cash. Meanwhile, developers are pushing their own Bitcoin vision with CashShuffle, Subchains, new address format, and reactivated opcodes.
Many who have recently tried to pay with Bitcoin in an online store should be pleased with the news from BitPay: to meet the growing demand for cryptocurrency payments, the world's largest Bitcoin payment provider will begin, too Support payments on other Bitcoin-inspired blockchains. "
The first step is the integration of Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin's Forkcoin was added to the BitPay Wallet app in September. "Since then, there has been a growing demand from merchants and their customers to accept Bitcoin Cash in our payment services as well." By the spring of 2018, all of BitPay's bills will also have the option of being paid with Bitcoin Cash by default.
So if you have not yet sold the Bitcoin Cash, which was distributed in August, you can look forward to the fact that from 2018 he will again be able to pay with low fees wherever Bitcoin is accepted with BitPay.
Contrary to that, Bitcoin Cash is moving into more and more wallets. Last week, the world's largest online wallet, Blockchain.info, integrated Bitcoin Cash into the wallet. People who had Bitcoins on Blockchain.info on August 1st now receive the same amount of Bitcoin Cash. There is also evidence that both the popular Android wallet Mycelium and the large wallet and currency exchange Coinbase will soon support Bitcoin Cash.
This eager acceptance of Bitcoin Cash by the ecosystem meets with astounding momentum in the development of the cryptocurrency.
For example, Bitcoin Cash has already eliminated the problem of "quadratic scaling" of signature operations with the first hardfork. The two hardforks together have eliminated several forms of malleability, and the flexible adjustment of mining difficulty has been optimized with the second hardfork.
In addition, a new (optional) address format will be introduced in January. CashAddr is based on bech32 and looks something like this: "bitcoincash: qpm2qsznhks23z7629mms6s4cwef74vcwvy22gdx6a". Personally, I find it aesthetically questionable, but I have to acknowledge that there are technical advantages and that avoiding uppercase letters is helpful when typing an address.
There is also a first draft for subchains. This concept provides some kind of intermediate block, "a 'weak' or 'partial' acknowledgment that introduces proof-of-work security between 'zero acknowledgments' and 'a full acknowledgment'." Subchains refine the spectrum between unconfirmed and confirmed , There is no longer only 0 and 1, but a gradual ascent to the certainty of a true affirmation. Subchains offer similar benefits to shorter block intersections without increasing the number of orphaned blocks.
Perhaps the most exciting development around Bitcoin Cash is CoinShuffle. I wrote a long time ago about this procedure, with which one can increase the anonymity of Bitcoin. In itself it is possible for a long time - and also necessary - to integrate a kind of CoinJoin into the wallets, because the privacy of Bitcoin is not only insufficient, but catastrophically non-existent.
So far nobody has taken care of it yet. With CashShuffle there is now a shuffle plugin for Electron Cash. The whole thing is still alpha, but very promising, as it brings a mechanism to increase fungibility directly into the wallet. Bitcoin.com has also announced plans to include CashShuffle in their own wallet. This could be an important step towards more privacy on the blockchain.
Bitcoin Cash is developed by several teams: ABC, Unlimited, XT, BitPrim and nChain. These teams each have their own roadmaps and priorities, but there seems to be, at least for the time being, an open climate for each other's ideas and an awareness that somehow, despite sometimes diverging views, one has to agree. So the new difficulty algorithm of ABC was not just the favorite of XT and Unlimited, and even the new address format does not meet with everyone's favor. But the doubts are not strong enough to break the cooperation or delay necessary upgrades.
A good example is the opcodes. All teams apparently share an intent to unlock offloaded opcodes, enabling more commands in Bitcoin's scripting language. ABC seems to be focusing on the disabled opcodes, while Bitcoin Unlimited has recently decided to develop, test, and eventually bring two self-designed new opcodes into Bitcoin Cash's log. These opcodes would bring native tokens to the blockchain and allow verification of further data.
Overall, this dynamic is refreshing. Just as Bitcoin itself benefits from the fact that the conflict has been outsourced to scaling with Bitcoin Cash's fork, Bitcoin Cash developers are gaining that they no longer depend on Core but can realize their own ideas. It is sometimes better if everyone does their own thing; the parts are more than the fractions of the whole. The market honors this and pushes the price of Bitcoin Cash to more than $ 3,500.
Estonia is counting on the Blockchain: The Baltic Republic wants to launch Estcoins on the market.
When Kaspar Korjus put a post on medium online in August, he caused a great deal of excitement. The director of the Estonian E-Residency speculated publicly about a state cryptocurrency called Estcoins. The text spread worldwide, the media wrote that Estonia think about its own cryptocurrency. The news hit so much that even Mario Draghi felt compelled to comment. "No member state can introduce its own currency, the currency of the euro zone is the euro," said the head of the European Central Bank. The Estonians rowed back: Estcoins should not be a digital means of payment, but a kind of "community coin" only for e-residents. The topic seemed finished.
But that just seemed like that. On Tuesday, Korjus has published a new media feature in which he announces the official launch of Estcoins. He developed the idea for the Estcoins in cooperation with the Estonian government, the state central bank and companies that have already started initial coin offerings. Even lawyers sat at the table - according to the clear statement of Draghi, the Estonians apparently wanted to hedge. The narrative that they have considered works like this: Estcoins are not a cryptocurrency, but a token for digital citizens.
What wil Estcoin bring?
Estcoins are supposed to support the "development of our digital nation," writes the E-Residency chief. "We want to structure the tokens to help expand our e-resident community." Estcoins aims to get more digital citizens to start a business in Estonia. In his article, Korjus divides the tokens into three forms: Community Estcoins, Identity Estcoins and Euro Estcoins. All three could theoretically be realized, it is said, possibly several at a time.
Community Estcoins would therefore help to increase the e-resident community. Digital citizens should receive Estcoins as a form of compensation, for example, if they bring traffic to the E-Residency website, if they successfully promote a new person to the program or advise other members. Another possibility would be identity coins. In this case, the tokens would be tied to one person. For example, E-Residents could log in, digitally sign documents or set up Smart Contracts. The ID cards that were previously used for verification would then be superfluous. In the third case, Estcoins would be linked to the euro. For example, transactions under e-Residents could be handled using the token.
Estcoin: Cryptocurrency or not?
Korjus writes:
But even though the head of e-residency emphasizes again and again in the article that one would not want to compete with the euro as a currency, the visions sound very much like cryptocurrency. As stated in the statement on community coins, it is important that the Estcoin owners benefit from it in the future. Estcoins should ultimately be traded on both traditional and crypto exchanges. For the Euro-Estcoins, he cites the example of how E-Residents can shift amounts between themselves. This is reminiscent of digital money.
A concrete date on which Estcoins are to come is not mentioned in the article. Only so much: more updates will follow in 2018. Let's see if the Estonians do not have to row back again until then.
Yesterday Tuesday, the venture capital subsidiary of the Bosch Group announced that it had participated in the IOTA Foundation with a "significant" number of IOTA tokens. Since Bosch sees itself as a pioneer in the adoption of Distributed Ledger technologies, investment is a strategic move. It is about the development and implementation of this technology in the automotive industry and the Internet of Things (IoT). The announcement has had a very positive impact on the IOTA share price, which has already gained over 30% today.
Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) yesterday announced a substantial stake in the non-profit IOTA Foundation. The RBVC recently acquired a significant amount of IOTA tokens. In what amount exactly, was not disclosed. The RBVC is not primarily concerned with an investment, as stated in the press release. The Bosch Group hopes to use distributed ledger technology to control the components of vehicles and control units of the Internet of Things (IoT). Bosch aims to integrate the novel technology into its own ecosystem as a target, in order to make it available to its most important partner companies. In order to intensify the cooperation, Dr. Ing. Hongquan Jiang join the advisory board of the IOTA Foundation.
IOTA, the first Distributed Ledger technology ever, goes far beyond the concept of blockchain from 2008 because it does not consist of a chain of blocks. The nodes (participants) do not have to communicate with each other in a fixed sequence unlike the blockchain. At IOTA, they are completely free to choose their communication partners. In contrast to blockchain, IOTA was specifically designed to optimize the control of IoT applications. These are all sorts of smart devices that have an intelligent control unit and are also connected to the Internet. In terms of speed and cost, IOTA is far superior to the much older blockchain technology. Since 2015, IOTA has been overseen by the non-profit organization IOTA Foundation, which ensures that it remains royalty-free for all developers.
The investment made by the Bosch Group is no coincidence. In the past, a collaboration with Volkswagen and innogy was announced in order to develop IOTA-based charging systems for cars in collaboration with the Foundation. Dr. Hongquan Jiang from Bosch believes in a great future for the new technology. They have been working together on various projects for three years now and share very similar visions with the foundation members. At the end of the joint effort is the most effective and cost-effective control of microcomputers in the IoT. This can be a smart refrigerator, toaster, or a vehicle part like a car battery that automatically tells the garage online that it needs to be replaced soon because of its state of charge, just to give a practical example. IOTA can be used in a variety of ways, which makes the technology very interesting for the Stuttgart conglomerate. Bosch is also involved in the development and sale of products from the fields of solar technology, building technology, industrial technology and much more.
The Crypto Valley-based company is closing a 16-million-franc round of financing with reputable Swiss investors and entrepreneurs, including Rainer-Marc Frey and Dr. Ing. Philipp Cottier, from. The additional capital will be used as regulatory capital for the application for a Swiss banking license.
Crypto Finance AG with its three business units Crypto Fund, Crypto Broker and Crypto Storage is currently applying for a banking license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA. This process will take some time, so "strategically positioning ourselves at an early stage to provide Crypto investors with a full range of financial services," said Jan Brzezek, CEO of Crypto Finance AG.
"This round of financing further strengthens our excellent network of financial experts, investors and entrepreneurs," says Dr. Tobias Reichmuth, Chairman of the Board of Crypto Finance AG. "With this additional capital, Crypto Finance AG has now laid the foundation for bringing much-needed professionalism to the crypto and blockchain markets," adds Dr. Philipp Cottier. "The company has enormous growth potential."
Crypto Finance AG was founded in the summer of 2017 and currently has 26 employees. Your trading desk, Crypto Broker AG, is already cash flow-positive. The first two funds will be launched offshore in early January and in Switzerland in the first quarter of 2018, following the approval of FINMA. The institutional crypto storage solution, which offers the highest level of security, will be launched in April 2018.
The Zug site in Switzerland is thus further expanding its position as a pioneer in terms of crypto acceptance and blockchain adaptation.
The South Korean crypto exchange Youbit has shut down its service and announced on Tuesday that it has to declare bankruptcy. This is a response to the second attack this year.
Reuters reported that the crypto exchange already suffered an attack in April stealing 4,000 Bitcoins. Just like the recent attack on Bithumb, North Korean hackers are also suspected here.
Youbit has now announced on its website that the attackers could steal 17% of the contents of the entire stock market. In response, they stated that all their users' assets are initially returned in a reduced form. Thus, each user should first get back 75% of his property, until further clarification occurs. In addition, all transactions were stopped.
In order to curb further damage, the owners of the site want to sell the company rights. Furthermore, they hope to pay out a sum insured in order to be able to pay out the remaining 25% to the users.
A representative of the Korea Internet & Security Agency has stated in a statement that it will immediately take care of the case and investigations are initiated.
Such attacks at first doubt the security of cryptocurrencies. As in the case of the market-leading South Korean stock exchange bithumb, the problems here were much more in poorly secured data and servers. The responsibility was therefore clearly not with the operators of the crypto exchange on the security of the cryptocurrency itself.
Other situation for cryptocurrencies
Otherwise, the southern neighbor of the mysterious regime surrounding Kim Jong Un is not exactly the friendliest environment for cryptocurrencies. For example, it was recently announced that ICOs should be banned and crypto businesses taxed. In addition, the authorities prohibit derivative transactions. Last but not least, South Korean Prime Minister Lee-Nak Yeon believes that cryptocurrencies are corrupting the youth. Unimpressed by this, NH Bank from the Seoul metropolitan area recently joined the R3 consortium - so Blockchain technology itself is highly valued.
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