Report: Blockchain.com Funding Round Cuts Valuation in Half – PYMNTS.com

Blockchain.comslatest funding round has reportedly cut its valuation by more than half.

The cryptocurrency exchangeannouncedTuesday (Nov. 14) that it had raised $110 million in a Series E round led by Kingsway Capital. Areportby Bloomberg News citing a source familiar with the matter says the new financing values Blockchain.com at under half of the$14 billionit reached last year.

That was before a downturn in the crypto market left the company and others like it on shaky ground. Blockchain.com announced in July of last year that it was letting go of 150 people a number that amounted to aquarter of its staff.

Those layoffs followed the companys $270 million loss to Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund that had an estimated $10 billion in assets and made a number of extremely risky bets on decentralized finance projects such as the Terra/LUNA algorithmic stablecoin.

The company cut another28% of its workforceearlier this year, joining a number of other crypto firms in shrinking their staffing levels.

The crypto ecosystem is facing significant headwinds as its course corrects from the challenges of the last year, Blockchain.com said in an email to Coindesk in January. To better balance product offerings with demand, weve made the difficult decision to reduce operating costs and headcount to rightsize the company.

The Bloomberg report notes that the companys new funding round is a sign that investors have gained more confidence in the crypto sector, asbitcoins price has risenin anticipation that exchange-traded funds investing in the currency will be approved.

However, a recent research report by JPMorgan Chasequestions the excitementabout the possible approval of spot bitcoin ETFs.

The enthusiasm is based on the idea that the approval would both draw new investors to the crypto markets, and would soften the attitude of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attitude toward digital currencies.

But JPMorgan analysts wrote that they are skeptical about both arguments, predicting that its more likely that existing money will move from current bitcoin products into ETFs rather than new investors jumping on the crypto bandwagon.

And while the SEC has suffered somerecent courtroom losses, it is far from clear that the regulatory tightening of the crypto industry will lessen significantly going forward given how unregulated this industry is, the report said.

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Singapore’s MAS to explore "global layer 1" blockchain tokenization with BNY, DBS, JPM, MUFG – Ledger Insights – Ledger Insights

Today the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced a significant expansion of itsProject Guardian, which explorestokenizationusing public blockchain. The most significant aspect is a new initiative called Global Layer One (GL1). Its designed as an open, digital infrastructure enabling cross border transactions and global liquidity pools. BNY Mellon, JP Morgan, DBS and MUFG are involved.

Before exploring GL1, MAS announced five more use cases. They include aJP Morgan and Apolloinitiative on tokenized funds. AndCiti, Fidelity and T Rowe Priceusing FX and oracles for trades on Avalanche. We covered both of those today.

Putting the Global Layer One in context, there are three other major initiatives along similar lines. They are theRegulated Liability Network(RLN), the BIS concept of aUnified Ledgerand theIMFs XC conceptfor cross border payments. And by the way, the IMF is joining Project Guardian to provide policy input.

While the announcement is thin on details, we believe a key feature of GL1 is the open part. Wed speculate that this might be a quasi public blockchain, probably using proof of authority. Any end user can access the network provided they do KYC. Thats quite different from the RLN, which is more about creating interoperability between disparatewholesalenetworks and ledgers. We believe the Unified Ledger is alsowholesalefocused.

To fully realise the potential of tokenised markets, and achieve network effects, a scalable digital infrastructure is needed, said Mr Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director (Markets and Development), MAS. GL1 will provide a foundational digital backbone and bring markets together with similar principles of openness and accessibility as the public internet. MAS welcomes additional policymakers and financial institutions to participate in the design phase of the GL1 initiative and contribute towards its development.

If thats not enough to convince you, heres the rationale behind the public blockchain thesis. Firstly Layer 1 is typically a phrase used in public blockchain circles. A key differentiator of MASsProject Guardianhas been allowing institutions to test the use of public blockchains. Its all done in a regulated way with KYC and layers of permissioning. One enterprise recently said to Ledger Insights that MAS is anti public blockchain. Based on Project Guardian, we disagree. However, its statements position it as not-so-keen on cryptocurrency.

Its possible to have a public blockchain without cryptocurrency. But that requires strong and trusted governance. Regulated institutions might operate all the nodes. Credit Agricole and SEB are doing something similar withSo|bond.

In related news, today MAS published a paper on blockchain interoperability. Most of the document explores aninterlinked network model(INM) which requires bridges. The concern is that bridges are notoriously vulnerable and are currently the source of most hacks on public blockchains.

Before diving into INM, MAS explores the other options. One is a common infrastructure, which MAS previously trialed inProject Dunbarfor cross border CBDC. Another is a layered model along the lines of Ethereum and its sidechains. The paper notes that this ensures that costs remain viable.

Apart from the JP Morgan and Citi projects, another new tokenization initiative is a treasury management solution from Ant Group.HSBC recently partnered Antto trial something similar in Hong Kong. BNY Mellon and OCBC are trialing a cross border FX solution across networks using different technologies. Bear in mind that BNY Mellon custodies reserves for the USDC stablecoin.

U.S. asset managerFranklin Templetonis the fifth use case addition. It already manages the largest tokenized traditional asset fund(more than $300m)on a public blockchain. Now its trialling Singapores new Variable Capital Company (VCC) combined with fund tokenization.

In fact, MAS has started a new VCC track for Project Guardian because eight institutions are engaged in VCC fund tokenization projects. We previously reported onUBS trialing tokenized fundsusing a VCC structure in addition toSchroders.

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AI, blockchain and phone scans: UIC researchers bring new … – UIC Today

Dentistry is experiencing a quiet but dramatic technological evolution. Many of the advances in artificial intelligence and big data that are changing the way we work, shop and find entertainment may soon make it easier for dentists to personalize care, monitor patients and develop new treatment options.

UIC College of Dentistry researchers are among the first in the country exploring the value of 3D image analysis, data sharing on the blockchain, home monitoring and other clinical technologies. Their perspective is not just to chase the latest hyped tech, but determine how these methods can improve patient outcomes and access to dental and orthodontic care.

UIC dentists and orthodontists often treat patients with rare or complex conditions, including cleft palates, ectodermal dysplasia, craniosynostosis and other complex dentofacial deformities, and provide dental care to traditionally underserved populations. Those activities give an opportunity to develop AI concepts and rigorously test whether they offer meaningful benefits compared with current methods and avoid perpetuating bias.

Its a huge advantage to be in an urban area and serve a population that is traditionally disenfranchised and underrepresented, said Dr. Veerasathpurush Allareddy, the Brodie Craniofacial Chair and professor of orthodontics at UIC. That means when we train these AI models, we can better adjust for some of the unique factors or challenges these groups of people face and ensure more algorithmic fairness.

AI for diagnosis, treatment and remote monitoring

Clinicians use of radiographs and other scans is essential in determining treatment plans and monitoring patient progress, but repeatedly collecting and analyzing these images is time-intensive for both doctor and patient.

Artificial intelligence offers new approaches for utilizing this important visual data. UIC dentists collaborate with colleagues in the College of Engineering to develop new algorithms for the analysis of these images; for example, determining the amount of growth left in a patient to guide orthodontic treatment. Clinicians currently use a broad four-category scale to measure this development and select between surgery and other interventions, but a new model provides a finer-grained, continuous measurement.

We applied image analysis, image processing and deep learning methods to estimate the maturity of a patient from spinal X-rays, said Ahmet Enis Cetin, professor of electrical and computer engineering. This will be the first step towards a personalized approach to surgery, where AI is used as a new tool to help dentists make decisions.

A team of dentists and engineers led by Dr. Mohammed Elnagar, assistant professor of orthodontics, also created an AI algorithm that helps select the most effective treatment plan. For instance, the model trained on 18 years of patient records collected at the College of Dentistry can judge whether a patients treatment objectives would be best met through the use of braces exclusively, or if supplementary surgical procedures are required. Members of the team received Thomas M. Graber Awards of Special Merit from the American Association of Orthodontists for the work.

After treatment has started, AI can also help clinicians monitor patient progress, even from afar. For example, patients can use attachments to their smartphone to take their own oral scans at home. An AI algorithm then creates a 3D model that shows how treatment is progressing and identifies potential issues that might require an office visit.

In recent papers, UIC researchers found the quality of these home scans matched what was obtained with regular clinical scans. That equal performance is encouraging for using the technology for early detection of complications. An ongoing clinical trial is testing whether treatment decisions guided by remote monitoring technology are as effective as in-person care.

You can optimize the patients office visits, based on the individual response, Elnagar said. If they are responding, they can keep going without a visit. If it moves off track or there is a surprise, we can have them come in earlier.

The ability to collect high-quality scans at home will also make a meaningful difference for patients living far from clinics or with complicated conditions currently requiring frequent visits.

Its really exciting for patients who are limited in their choice of providers, said Dr. Min Kyeong Lee, a clinical assistant professor of orthodontics who is also studying the ethical considerations of AI applications. It can save a lot of time traveling, and during the start of some treatments it can sometimes require a visit every month, so its a big burden on the family that we can reduce.

Genomics and the blockchain

While imaging combined with AI can provide powerful data on a patients current state, dentists would also like to be able to make accurate predictions about their future. To do so will require additional data, including a rich category that has already made a massive impact in medicine: genomics.

In orthodontics, interventions may last years, and clinicians must anticipate how a patients teeth and associated structures will change in order to find the most appropriate treatment option. Genomic information could help dispel that uncertainty and inform decisions, Allareddy said, by identifying associations between certain genes and factors like root resorption and tooth movement.

Well be able to render truly personalized orthodontic care based on the genomic profile of each patient, Allareddy said. We can change the treatment or maybe even not do treatment, when the data suggests we would probably be doing more harm than good.

But dentistry does not have the same access to universal platforms or the culture of data sharing between institutions that exist in medicine. While the UIC College of Dentistry has the advantage of being one of the largest programs in the United States, the types of studies that will unlock the predictive abilities of genetics will require data from much larger patient pools, combined with other modes of information including images and clinical outcomes.

A potential facilitator of these necessary data exchanges could be the blockchain. Though often discussed in the context of cryptocurrency, the blockchain also offers promise as a secure record of information distributed across computers worldwide instead of a single, centralized database.

In a recent paper, Allareddy, Elnagar, Lee and Dr. Maysaa Oubaidin, associate professor of orthodontics, proposed using blockchain technologies to help dental researchers around the world share and learn from clinical data. The system could enable federated machine learning a form of AI where models are trained on distributed data without moving it from its secure home and large-scale analyses that unlock the potential of genomic data or test interventions across a broader range of individuals, including those from underserved patient populations.

If we can really have this huge collaboration between universities, hospitals and clinics and we can focus on organizing the data so everybody can work on one big project together instead of competing, then it may be possible to have no bias or exclusion of minorities, said Dr. Flavio Jos Castelli Sanchez, an assistant professor of orthodontics. Were trying to eliminate that, and theres a big chance to do it using artificial intelligence as long as we do it properly.

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UW’s Wyo BEE Curriculum to Enhance Blockchain and Digital … – University of Wyoming News

A University of Wyoming program to enhance blockchain, finance and digital literacy learning for Wyoming high school students will be available through Wyo BEE in fall 2024.

Wyo BEE -- which stands for Wyoming Blockchain Education for Everyone -- will supply 12 teaching modules for high school juniors, seniors and community college students to access. Included in the program is a textbook, co-written by Steve Lupien, UW Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation director. The modules also will have teachers manuals, quizzes and digital certification for students who successfully complete the coursework. A digital game to help reinforce what students learn also is planned for the program.

Wyoming has become a world leader in blockchain-related laws, Lupien says. It is important that high school, community college and university students, as well as the public, learn about the impacts of blockchain.

He says that Wyoming has passed more than 35 bills enabling blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital assets that are intended to positively affect Wyomings economy by creating jobs, developing new businesses and attracting existing blockchain and digital assets businesses to the state.

Lupien and Michelle Aldrich, Wyoming Department of Education state director of Career and Technical Education, are principal leads for the program. Wyo BEE was created through funding made available to states by the federal government to develop initiatives to rebuild their economies following the COVID-19 pandemic. To administer the funds, the Wyoming Innovation Partnership was created at the request of Gov. Mark Gordon in 2021 to modernize and focus Wyomings efforts to develop a resilient workforce and economy.

Wyo BEE aims to better align Wyomings economic development agenda by increasing collaborations between state entities and, ultimately, local partners. The partnership involves UW, the states community colleges, Wyoming Business Council and the Department of Workforce Services, with an emphasis on developing innovative solutions that support and enhance Wyomings economy, workforce and sources of revenue.

Two high schools in Green River and Kemmerer are taking part in a pilot Wyo BEE program this school year, Aldrich says, with faculty members from Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs incorporating the curriculum into the classrooms.

We are really excited that teachers across Wyoming -- whether they are business and marketing teachers, whether they are family and consumer science teachers or economics teachers at the secondary or the postsecondary level -- will have the opportunity to help educate their students about blockchain education and digital assets, Aldrich says.

Wyo BEE materials are designed to be updated on a regular basis to provide the latest information, trends and developments in digital assets. Future plans will expand the program to UW, community college and adult education students.

Those assisting Lupien and Aldrich in producing Wyo BEE materials were Candace Ryder, a UW instructional designer; Cindy and Bill Taylor, publishers of Digital Wealth News; and Jahon Jamali, CEO and founder of American Crypto Academy. Jamali is a featured presenter in the Wyo BEE videos.

For more information, visit http://www.uwyo.edu/wyobee or email blockchain@uwyo.edu.

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How a Hungarian tech company is using blockchain to trace food … – FoodNavigator.com

Using blockchain technology to record transactions is far more reliable than using ordinary digital transactions. With blockchain, each transaction is permanently recorded on a ledger as the latest link in a long chain engrained into every node in the network in question. This means that if one is changed, someone will know foul play has taken place.

While it is often used for cryptocurrency, this also makes blockchain the perfect technology for ensuring that a food product's supply chain is traceable.

TE-Food, a Hungarian tech company, uses blockchain technology to help consumers, food companies and governments trace supply chains gather knowledge about how they work.

TE-Foods blockchain ledger, like all blockchain ledgers, is decentralised. This ledger, which it calls the TrustChain,' tracks transactions using TE-Foods technology, and can be accessed by the public, making it transparent.

During different stages of food products' supply chains, TE-Foods traceability data is sent to the companys framework, which is recorded on its blockchain ledger. This data then appears on consumer landing pages. Consumers can access said information by scanning a QR code which appears on traced goods. The QR codes help consumers find out more about their product, but also help businesses collect data about said consumers.

The purpose of this technology is threefold: to help consumers keep track of the supply chains of products they're buying, to help private companies keep track of their own supply chains, and to help governments get a good idea of the supply chains of the whole food system of their respective countries. In fact, TE-Foods has several projects with governments, for example helping them mitigate an African Swine Fever outbreak in 2019.

The technology provides traceability data from a wide range of locations, from smallholder farms to giant corporations.

The purpose of undertaking these traceability measures varies depending on the client. The governmental traceability projects are usually on food safety and security, Gergely Kves, Lead Project Manager on International Traceability Projects, told FoodNavigator.

The private, retail chain or supplier driven solutions are focusing on quality assurance or marketing communication. There are partners who are also communicating on animal welfare, fair trade and their local projects, non-GMO.

Currently most applications are in super-fresh supply chains: vegetables, fruits and meat. But there are examples of processed and packaged products as well.

The main challenges, Kves suggested, are twofold: firstly, winning the supply chain members to take part in the traceability administration, and secondly printing, labelling and engraving unique QR codes on a wide range of products.

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Hoping to be the go-to platform for blockchain devs, Uniblock … – BetaKit – Canadian Startup News

Uniblock aims to unify fragmented blockchain tools into a single platform.

Toronto-based Web3 startup Uniblock has secured $3.1 million CAD ($2.3 million USD) in pre-seed financing as it looks to become the default platform for blockchain developers.

According to Uniblock CEO and co-founder Kevin Callahan, the pre-seed round had no lead investors, but saw participation from Cadenza, Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, AQN, Serafund and Outsider Ventures. This round marks Uniblocks first external raise to date.

Their platform is a massive upgrade for any company that wants to build, manage, and maintain a Web3 product.

Fragmentation is a key challenge for blockchain developers. A 2021 report by Deloitte Insights observed that the early blockchain market was characterized by a multitude of platforms and protocols that lacked standardized technical processes. This absence of interoperability restricted enterprises from effectively engaging across various platforms.

Uniblock aims to tackle this fragmentation by connecting blockchain tools, such as Alchemy, thirdweb, Moralis, Parsiq, Covalent, and QuickNode, into one Web3 API platform. The startups goal is to consolidate Web3 integrations into one toolkit, allowing developers to easily scale their projects. Uniblock claims to have over 1,000 customers using its platform.

The startup, which has offices in Toronto and San Francisco, was co-founded by Callahan, CTO David Liu, and vice president of engineering James Liu. Callahan is an alumni of Coinbase and Twitter, and is an adjunct professor in product management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Blockchain is the technology that underlies a number of Web3 products, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Hype in the sector has faded in recent years following the decline in market prices of major cryptocurrencies and a slowdown in the trading volume of NFTs.

RELATED: Aquanow launches AQN Digital Ventures Fund to back next generation of blockchain startups

But Web3 is still relatively active in Canada. In August, Coinbase announced its official entry into the Canadian market, while startups like LayerZero, Oamo, and TransCrypts have managed to garner investor interest this year.

Uniblocks innovative approach to Web3 development holds the promise of transforming how blockchain products are built, Aly Madhavji, managing partner at Blockchain Founders Fund, said in a statement. Were backing their mission to tackle this fragmented market with their easy-to-use Unified Web3 API platform. Their platform is a massive upgrade for any company that wants to build, manage, and maintain a Web3 product.

Uniblocks team currently stands at 12, and Callahan told BetaKit the pre-seed funding will be put towards hiring more members to its engineering, partnership, and marketing teams.

Feature image courtesy of Uniblock.

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How On-chain Analytics Bring Transparency to Blockchain and … – CoinDesk

As managers investing on behalf of clients, we are constantly monitoring on-chain analytics to ensure we are making informed decisions. You can gather a lot of useful, actionable information with on-chain analytics. For example, you can look at unique wallet addresses. If this is growing rapidly it could mean that adoption of the project is picking up. You could also look at wallet activity if there are a lot of transactions, addresses sending crypto back and forth, it could indicate that the project has a meaningful user base and it is not solely being traded on centralized exchanges. You can also see what percentage of the supply of a token is held by the largest wallet addresses. This is important because the main ethos of crypto is decentralization and giving autonomy to its users. However if a projects tokens are more or less held by a few large wallets then this leads to a centralization that allows a few whales to manipulate, price, rewards, governance, etc. These are just a few examples. Analysis of this data is constantly evolving and new, meaningful relationships, ratios, and statistics are being discovered and tracked. And since this is done on public ledgers, anyone with an internet connection can do their own analysis.

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Brief Introduction to Blockchain Security Audits – LCX

Moreover, audits must be ongoing because code is frequently updated or forked, rendering solitary audits inadequate for long-term security. In addition, there is the difficulty of ensuring that the deployed code is the audited code and not something else. This highlights the importance of both transparency and provenance in the deployment process, as well as the need for a broader, code-auditing-free approach to security.

Vulnerability Mitigation: In the decentralized realm of blockchain, vulnerabilities can have far-reaching consequences. Security audits enable the identification and resolution of these vulnerabilities, preventing potential breaches and unauthorized access.

Regulatory Compliance: With increased attention from regulatory bodies, adherence to security standards is crucial. Blockchain security audits help ensure compliance with regulatory guidelines, fostering a more transparent and legally compliant environment.

Investor and User Confidence: Robust security measures bolster user trust and investor confidence. By demonstrating a commitment to security through audits, projects can attract more users and investments.

Smart Contract Integrity: Blockchain applications heavily rely on smart contracts. Audits detect vulnerabilities in these self-executing contracts, reducing the risk of exploits like the infamous DAO hack.

Code Review: A thorough examination of the source code is conducted to identify coding errors, vulnerabilities, and logical flaws. This involves analyzing the codebase for potential exploits and ensuring adherence to best practices.

Penetration Testing: Also known as ethical hacking, penetration testing simulates real-world attacks to uncover vulnerabilities. This method helps assess the resilience of the system against potential threats.

Architecture Analysis: This involves scrutinizing the overall system architecture to detect design flaws that might be leveraged by attackers. Ensuring proper separation of concerns, data integrity, and network security are key aspects of this analysis.

Threat Modeling: By anticipating potential threats and attack vectors, threat modeling guides the auditing process. It helps auditors prioritize their efforts and focus on the most critical security aspects.

Network Assessment: Auditors evaluate network components, such as nodes and communication channels, to ensure encryption, data integrity, and resistance against network-based attacks.

Preparation: Define the scope of the audit, identify the assets to be audited (smart contracts, nodes, applications), and gather relevant documentation.

Code Analysis: Examine the source code for vulnerabilities like input validation issues, incorrect data handling, and unauthorized access points.

Threat Modeling: Map out potential threats and attack vectors specific to the blockchain ecosystem being audited.

Penetration Testing: Simulate attacks to evaluate the systems response and identify potential weaknesses that might not be evident through code analysis alone.

Smart Contract Assessment: Review the logic and functionality of smart contracts to ensure they operate as intended and cant be manipulated.

Architecture Review: Analyze the systems architecture for design flaws that could lead to vulnerabilities or compromises.

Documentation Review: Verify that security measures and processes are well-documented and easily understandable.

Reporting: Compile findings, vulnerabilities, and recommendations into a comprehensive report for stakeholders. Provide actionable steps to address the identified issues.

Blockchain security audits play a pivotal role in maintaining the integrity and security of blockchain ecosystems. In an era where data breaches and cyberattacks are increasingly common, these audits offer a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities before they are exploited. Through methodologies like code analysis, penetration testing, and architecture review, security experts ensure that blockchain systems remain resilient, compliant, and trustworthy. As the world continues to embrace blockchain technology across sectors, prioritizing security through thorough audits will be crucial to realizing the full potential of decentralized systems while safeguarding user data and investments.

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The Market Size of Various Blockchain/Crypto Sectors in 2023 – FinSMEs

Blockchain Globe Network Free photo on Pixabay Pixabay

The cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, once confined to the fringes of technological innovation, has now begun reshaping various sectors across the global economy.

To fully understand just how engrained both blockchain and cryptocurrency have become in key industry sectors, were taking a closer look at a couple of sectors and how crypto and blockchains market size is growing and changing in these fields as technology progresses.

The finance sector finds itself at the cutting edge of cryptocurrency adoption. Blockchain technology is shaking up traditional financial systems, allowing for the emergence of groundbreaking solutions. In this ever-evolving landscape, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have broken free from their niche origins and become mainstream investment alternatives, with institutional investors now paying substantial attention to these digital assets, recognizing their vast potential.

The market size of cryptocurrencies within the finance sector has witnessed exponential growth in recent years. Institutional interest, marked by the entry of major financial players, has played a pivotal role in bolstering the market size as well. According to Data Bridge Market Research, the crypto banking market was valued at $1.49 billion dollars in 2021. This number is expected to soar to approximately $2.52 billion by 2029.

The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies has also fueled the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi), a sub-sector characterized by smart contracts and blockchain-based financial instruments. The market size of DeFi alone has reached tens of billions of dollars, indicating a change in how we access financial services. In fact, BCC Research shared that in 2021 the DeFi market size was $9.4 billion, with a projection to reach a massive $70.3 billion by 2027.

The online gaming sector, including online crypto casinos and play-to-earn (P2E) crypto gaming, has embraced cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The market size of cryptocurrency integration in online gaming is experiencing rapid growth as gamers seek more transparent and secure platforms.

Online gambling, including the rapidly emerging sector of crypto casinos, has become a significant player in the global gaming industry. Platforms like Mega Dice Crypto Casino make the most of the transparency and security of blockchain technology, so are steadily growing in popularity as more players seek the enhanced privacy and efficiency offered by cryptocurrencies. In fact, the global crypto gambling market size was recently valued at approximately $250 million and is growing quickly, according to Crypto Reporter.

The market size of crypto gaming, which includes blockchain-based games and decentralized gaming platforms, is expanding rapidly as well. NFTs, representing in-game assets, have added a layer of ownership and value to virtual items, contributing to the growing market size of this sector. According to Markets to Markets, global blockchain gaming revenue exceeded $4.6 billion in 2022, with this number expected to increase to a staggering $65.7 billion by 2027.

Blockchain technology is making inroads into the healthcare sector, promising to address challenges related to data security, interoperability, and patient privacy. The market size of blockchain solutions in healthcare is poised for substantial growth as the industry recognizes the transformative potential of decentralized and secure data management moving into the future.

Within the healthcare sector, blockchain is showing great potential, and can revolutionize patient records, enhance data sharing, and make clinical trials much more efficient. In fact, global blockchain in the healthcare sector was worth about $462 million in 2022.

Governments worldwide are exploring blockchain applications to improve transparency, security, and efficiency in various processes. The market size of blockchain solutions in government sectors is poised to grow quickly. As reported by Allied Market Research, the global blockchain government market was valued at $2.5 billion in 2022 with projections to grow up to $218.6 billion by 2032. This market includes blockchain technology that is used within the operations and systems of government organizations.

Blockchain can be utilized for secure identity verification, transparent voting systems, and streamlined administrative processes. Several countries are piloting or implementing blockchain solutions in areas such as land registry, supply chain management, and public services.

Governments around the world are waking up to the immense potential of blockchain technology and its many benefits, including ways that it will work to revolutionize public service and slash bureaucratic inefficiencies.

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PancakeSwap Bets on GameFi: Launches Blockchain Gaming … – Blockonomi

PancakeSwap, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on BNB Chain, recently announced the launch of its Gaming Marketplace a platform for developers to build and publish blockchain-based games. This strategic move aims to capitalize on the fast growing GameFi niche by integrating crypto tokens and NFTs into gaming applications.

The marketplace currently features two published games Pancake Protectors and Pancake Mayor. Pancake Protectors is a tower defense game developed in partnership with Mobox. Since its beta launch in May 2022, it has attracted over 25,000 daily players at its peak. Players can earn CAKE tokens as rewards in the game. Pancake Mayor is a casual city-building game that also offers CAKE token rewards.

According to PancakeSwap, the gaming marketplace provides developers access to its vast user base of over 1.5 million potential monthly players. The platform is designed to make integration of CAKE tokens and PancakeSwap NFTs seamless so developers can easily build play-to-earn and NFT-powered games. This incentivizes players to spend more time gaming to earn crypto rewards.

One of the key highlights of the gaming marketplace is its multi-chain interoperability. PancakeSwap operates on 9 popular blockchains including BNB Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, Aptos, Arbitrum and more. This allows developers on any of these chains to build and publish cross-chain games on the PancakeSwap marketplace.

As GameFi gains more mainstream traction, the timing of this marketplace launch seems ideal to tap into crypto gamers. PancakeSwap is already a leading DEX, and this gaming focus can help expand its ecosystem and utility.

PancakeSwap taps into the growing GameFi niche with the launch of its Gaming Marketplace for crypto developers.

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What is Blockchain? | Oracle

Think of a blockchain as a historical record of transactions. Each block is chained to the previous block in a sequence, and is immutably recorded across a peer-to-peer network. Cryptographic trust and assurance technology applies a unique identifieror digital fingerprintto each transaction.

Trust, accountability, transparency, and security are forged into the chain. This enables many types of organizations and trading partners to access and share data, a phenomenon known as third-party, consensus-based trust.

All participants maintain an encrypted record of every transaction within a decentralized, highly scalable, and resilient recording mechanism that cannot be repudiated. Blockchain does not require any additional overhead or intermediaries. Having a decentralized, single source of truth reduces the cost of executing trusted business interactions among parties that may not fully trust each other. In a permissioned blockchain, used by most enterprises, participants are authorized to participate in the network, and each participant maintains an encrypted record of every transaction.

Any company or group of companies that needs a secure, real-time, shareable record of transactions can benefit from this unique technology. There is no single location where everything is stored, leading to better security and availability, with no central point of vulnerability.

To learn more about blockchain, its underlying technology, and use cases, here are some important definitions.

There are two main types of blockchain nodes:

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What is Blockchain? | Oracle

What is Blockchain Technology? A Step-by-Step Guide For Beginners

What is blockchain technology? What makes it so important?

Imagine a world where you can send money directly to someone without a bank in seconds instead of days, and you dont pay exorbitant bank fees.

Or one where you store money in an online wallet not tied to a bank, meaning you are your own bank and have complete control over your money. You dont need a banks permission to access or move it, and never have to worry about a third party taking it away, or a governments economic policy manipulating it.

This is not a world of the future; it is a world that an avid but growing number of early adopters live in right now. And these are just a few of the important blockchain technology use cases that are transforming the way we trust and exchange value. Well get into the rest later on.

Yet, for many, blockchain technology is still a mysterious or even intimidating topic. Some even remain skeptical that well use this technology in the future. This skepticism that exists today is understandable because were still very early in the development and widespread adoption of blockchain technology.

2021 is to blockchain what the late 1990s were to the internet. And like the internet, blockchain technology is anything but a fad, its here to stay, and if youre reading this, youre early too.

This post demystifies blockchain technology. This is your intro to blockchain technology 101. A complete, easy-to-understand, step by step beginners blockchain breakdown. Youll learn everything from what blockchain is and why it matters, to how blockchain works (step by step) and what today tomorrows most promising blockchain applications may be.

Youll also walk away from this post confident, and well on your way to making informed, independent blockchain technology investment decisions. And youll be no slouch if you want to hold your own in conversations with family and friends too!

So lets dive in

Blockchain technology is the concept or protocol behind the running of the blockchain. Blockchain technology makes cryptocurrencies (digital currencies secured by cryptography) like Bitcoin work just like the internet makes email possible.

The blockchain is an immutable (unchangeable, meaning a transaction or file recorded cannot be changed) distributed digital ledger (digital record of transactions or data stored in multiple places on a computer network) with many use cases beyond cryptocurrencies.

Immutable and distributed are two fundamental blockchain properties. The immutability of the ledger means you can always trust it to be accurate. Being distributed protects the blockchain from network attacks.

Each transaction or record on the ledger is stored in a block. For example, blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain consist of an average of more than 500 Bitcoin transactions.

The information contained in a block is dependent on and linked to the information in a previous block and, over time, forms a chain of transactions. Hence the word blockchain.

There are four types of blockchains:

Public blockchains are open, decentralized networks of computers accessible to anyone wanting to request or validate a transaction (check for accuracy). Those (miners) who validate transactions receive rewards.

Public blockchains use proof-of-work or proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms (discussed later). Two common examples of public blockchains include the Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) blockchains.

Private blockchains are not open, they have access restrictions. People who want to join require permission from the system administrator. They are typically governed by one entity, meaning theyre centralized. For example, Hyperledger is a private, permissioned blockchain.

Consortiums are a combination of public and private blockchains and contain centralized and decentralized features. For example, Energy Web Foundation, Dragonchain, and R3.

Take note: There isnt a 100 percent consensus on whether these are different terms. Some make a distinction between the two, while others consider them the same thing.

A sidechain is a blockchain running parallel to the main chain. It allows users to move digital assets between two different blockchains and improves scalability and efficiency. An example of a sidechain is the Liquid Network.

Blockchain isnt just a database, its a new technology stack with digital trust that is revolutionizing the way we exchange value and information across the internet, by taking out the gatekeepers from the process. For a complete and more detailed deep dive check out our article: A Concise History of Blockchain Technology

Blockchain history goes back farther than you might imagine, but weve condensed it by answering four critical questions:

The first blockchain-like protocol was proposed by cryptographer David Chaum in 1982. Later in 1991, Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta wrote about their work on Consortiums.

But it was Satoshi Nakamoto (presumed pseudonym for a person or group of people) who invented and implemented the first blockchain network after deploying the worlds first digital currency, Bitcoin.

Cryptography is a deep and fascinating discipline with a history that goes back further than blockchain. For a richer understanding of how cryptography helps blockchain technology, check out: Why Cryptography Makes Blockchain Unstoppable

Because blockchain technology is the technology behind the blockchain, it cannot be owned. Its like the internet. But anyone can use the technology to run and own their own blockchains.

Satoshi Nakamoto.

Nakamoto sent ten bitcoins to Hal Finney, who built the first reusable proof-of-work system in 2004.

For a more in-depth account of the next section, check out the thorough discussion in: What is Blockchain Technology and How Does it Work?

Lets start with an oversimplification.

As a society, we created ledgers to store informationand they have a variety of applications. For example, we use ledgers in real estate to store a houses records, such as when alterations were made or the house was sold. We also use ledgers in bookkeeping to record all the transactions a company makes.

Bookkeeping mostly relies on double-entry accounting to store transactions. Although this is a step-up from single-entry accounting that lacks transparency and accountability, double-entry accounting also has its pitfalls: Entries are accounted for separately, making it difficult for one counterparty to verify the others records.

Records stored using traditional ledgers are also easy to tamper with, meaning you can easily edit, remove, or add a record. As a result, youre less likely to trust that the information is accurate.

Public blockchains solve both these problems and the way we trust by evolving the traditional bookkeeping model to triple-entry bookkeeping: transactions on a blockchain are cryptographically sealed by a third entry. This creates a tamper-proof record of transactions stored in blocks and verified by a distributed consensus mechanism.

These consensus mechanisms also ensure new blocks get added to any blockchain. An example of a consensus mechanism is proof-of-work (PoW), often referred to as mining.

Mining isnt universal to all blockchains; its just one type of consensus mechanism currently used by Bitcoin and Ethereum, though Ethereum plans to move to anotherproof-of-stake (PoS) by 2022.

Heres how this process works with Bitcoin. When sending Bitcoin, you pay a small fee (in bitcoin) for a network of computers to confirm your transaction is valid. Your transaction is then bundled with other transactions pending in a queue to be added to a new block.

The computers (nodes) then work to validate this list of transactions in the block by solving a complex mathematical problem to come up with a hash, which is a 64-digit hexadecimal number.

Once solved, the block is added to the networkand your fee, combined with all other transaction fees in that block, is the miners reward. Its that simple.

Each new block added to the network is assigned a unique key (via cryptography). To obtain each new key, the previous blocks key and information are inputted into a formula.

As new blocks are continually added through the ongoing mining process, they become increasingly secure and harder to tamper with. Anyone caught trying to edit a record will simply be ignored. All future blocks then depend on information from prior blocksand this dependency from one block to the next forms a secure chain: the blockchain.

You can see this depicted below for house records stored on the blockchain. For example, Block 2 provides a key after taking all the information from Block 1 into account (including the key) and inputting it into a formula. Block 3, in turn, provides a new key after taking all the information from Block 1 and Block 2 into account (including the key) and inputting it into a formula. And so, the process repeats itself indefinitely.

Now, lets dig deeper, exploring proof-of-work (PoW) vs. proof-of-stake (PoS) and the blockchain trilemma, which are fundamental to the public blockchains functioning.

A public blockchain functions through consensus mechanisms: the process for validating transactions without a third party like a bank.

PoW and PoS are two such mechanisms. While their goalto reach a consensus that a transaction is validremains the same, how they get there is a little different.

PoW, the technical term for mining, is the original consensus mechanism. It is still used by Bitcoin and Ethereum as of writing but, as mentioned, Ethereum will move to PoS by 2022. PoW is based on cryptography, which uses mathematical equations only computers can solve.

The example in the previous section of how blocks get added to the Bitcoin Blockchain explains this system.

The two big problems with PoW are that it uses a lot of electricity and can only process a limited number of transactions simultaneously (seven for Bitcoin). Transactions typically take at least ten minutes to complete, with this delay increasing when the network is congested. Though compared to the days-long wait required to wire money across the globe, or even to clear a check, Bitcoins ten-minute delay is quite remarkable.

Other consensus mechanisms were created to solve these PoW problems; the most popular being PoS.

PoS still uses cryptographic algorithms for validation, but transactions get validated by a chosen validator based on how many coins they hold, also known as their stake.

Individuals arent technically mining, and theres no block reward. Instead, blocks are forged. Those participating in this process lock a specific number of coins on the network.

The bigger a persons stake, the more mining power they haveand the higher the chances theyll be selected as the validator for the next block.

To ensure those with the most coins arent always selected, other selection methods are used. These include randomized block selection (forgers with the highest stake and lowest hash value are chosen) and coin age selection (forgers are selected based on how long theyve held their coins)

The results are faster transaction times and lower costs. The NEO and Dash cryptocurrencies, for example, can send and receive transactions in seconds.

Most blockchain projects are built around three core properties: decentralization, scalability, and security. Developers are constantly trying to balance these aspects, so one isnt compromised.

But they often have to sacrifice one for the others. The blockchain trilemma, concept was first coined the scalability trilemma by Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin.

Lets look at these concepts in more detail and explore the tradeoffs:

Decentralization means theres no central point of control. Instead, decisions are made via consensus over a distributed network of computers.

There is, however, one significant tradeoff: speed. Sending transactions takes longer because multiple confirmations are required to validate a transaction. Hence why Bitcoin is slow.

Scalability is the ability of the system to cope with a growing number of transactions. Scalability is crucial for mass adoption because any system needs to operate efficiently as more people use it.

Below is a rough breakdown of how many transactions Ethereum, Bitcoin, and credit card companies can process per second:

But achieving scalability often comes at the expense of decentralization. EOS, for example, promises a maximum of 4000 TPS but has come under criticism for being too centralized.

Security is the ability of a blockchain to be protected from attacks. Unfortunately, exchanges and source code have been hacked on many occasions, suggesting that many developers focus on scalability and decentralization at the expense of security.

Bitcoin and Etherum are the two biggest cryptocurrencies and blockchains, so discussing and comparing them makes sense.

The Bitcoin network is a public, decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that allows users to send and receive bitcoins without a bank getting involved. The digital currency or bitcoin token uses the ticker symbol BTC, and is the only cryptocurrency traded on the Bitcoin network.

Transactions are recorded using a digital ledger, and nodes ensure the PoW consensus mechanism is followed (or that mining happens). For many, Bitcoin seems complicated, but it isnt when you view it as a combination of three things:

In 2013, after traveling, meeting with bitcoin developers, and discovering Bitcoins limitations, Vitlaik Buterin decided to improve upon the Bitcoin blockchain and built Ethereum.

The Ethereum network is a public, decentralized peer-to-peer network. Like Bitcoin, it uses nodes and allows users to send and receive cryptocurrencyin this case, Ether.

The network is much more than a payment systemit was primarily created to deploy decentralized applications (dapps) and smart contracts.

Dapps are simply decentralized apps, or computer programs that interact with the Ethereum blockchain. Smart contracts, however, operate on the Ethereum blockchain, and are contracts that automatically execute without an intermediary once certain conditions (written into computer code) are met. For example, a smart contract could be programmed to send a designated person a portion of your Bitcoin when you die.

In summary, Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are public, decentralized peer-to-peer networks with their own tokens: bitcoins and Ether. Both rely on cryptography, and both use digital ledger technology. For a complete Ethereum vs. Bitcoin match up check out our deep dive post: Ethereum Vs Bitcoin: Whats the Difference?

But they differ significantly in purpose and capability. Bitcoin is a decentralized payment system and a store of value. Its blockchain is a database of all bitcoin transactions and tracks their ownership. Ethereum is more than a payment system and allows smart contracts and apps to be built on it, making it a more sophisticated blockchain.

Public open source blockchains are not without their hazards and challenges. Here is a list of the top concerns:

Blockchain networks like Bitcoin use a lot of electricity to validate transactions, leading to environmental concerns. For example, Bitcoin consumes more electricity than a small, medium-sized European country, and Bitcoin mining is threatening Chinas climate change goals.

However, many would argue that Bitcoin is held to higher environmental standards than anyone and anything. This may be true, especially if you consider that the blockchain and Bitcoin are an alternative to the traditional finance system that uses much more electricity and has a much larger environmental impact.

A study by Galaxy Digital suggests Bitcoin energy consumption is less than half that of the traditional banking system. If anything, you could argue that Bitcoin is a step in the right direction for the environment.

No one is saying that making strides to lowering the carbon footprint shouldnt be on the agenda (this is already happening with some mining farms shifting to renewable energy sources like solar panels and the El Salvadoran President calling for a plan to use geothermal energy (volcanoes) to mine Bitcoin).

But its crucial to maintain a balanced view when viewing the cost, environmental impact, and blockchain benefits.

One of blockchains and cryptocurrencies most significant advantages is also its biggest weakness. When you invest in public open-source blockchains by mining or buying cryptocurrencies and store it in your cryptocurrency wallet (your wallet is like your bank account, except only you can access it and have the passwords), only you control your money.

You are your own bank and this is great! But if you lose your seed phrases the list of words that give you access to recover your wallets there is no recourse (compared to banks where you can reset your password). Your money is lost forever.

Unsurprisingly, a large portion of Bitcoin remains permanently lost. According to some estimates, 20% or 3.7 million of the currently minted Bitcoin is probably lost forever.

Even though public blockchains remain more efficient than traditional banking systems, decentralization comes at the cost of scalability. Trying to grow blockchain networks to global capacity, in turn, is the root cause of speed inefficiencies. Its why, as we saw, Bitcoin and Ethereum can only process a maximum of seven and 30 transactions, respectively, compared to Visas 24,000.

Luckily solutions are being built to improve scalability and the speed of transactions. For example, the lightning network allows transactions to happen off the Bitcoin blockchain to speed up transactions. On Ethereum, many innovative Layer 2 (L2) solutions are being developed to improve scalability and speed including rollups, zero-knowledge proofs and side chains.

Some cryptocurrencies are undoubtedly used in unlawful activity. The most famous example is Silk Road: people laundered money and bought drugs on the platform using Bitcoin.

However, this is no different from the illegal activity that constantly happens when people use other currencies like the Dollar.

This false narrative that cryptocurrencies are only or mainly used for illicit activities only delays their inevitable adoption, which can hugely benefit everyone, including the financial system.

For an even more in-depth discussion of the most interesting and disruptive blockchain use cases as of 2021 check our guide: Disruptive Blockchain Technology Use Cases 2021

Blockchain technology is currently used across various industries like supply chain, healthcare, retail, media and advertising, financial services, insurance, travel and transportation, oil and gas, and gaming.

Here are some promising use cases:

With blockchain offering some promising use cases, helping many companies become more efficient, and attracting big companies like Amazon and Tesla, it can be an attractive investment.

But there are risks: Its a new technology, and many projects will not pan out. So, invest only what you can afford to lose, do your own research to determine if the project (or initial coin offering) is worth investing in, and decide what level of exposure you want.

For example, you can get more exposure by investing in cryptocurrencies directly instead of an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

That being said, here are a variety of ways you can invest in the blockchain depending on your goals and risk tolerance:

If youre looking to get started with crypto investing, weve created a comprehensive step-by-step guide you can follow to get started here: How To Invest in Cryptocurrencies: The Ultimate Beginners Guide

Read more from the original source:

What is Blockchain Technology? A Step-by-Step Guide For Beginners

What is a Blockchain? Is It Hype? – The New York Times

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Maybe youve read about the blockchain and dont get the fuss. (I am sheepishly raising my hand.) Maybe youve never heard of it.

My colleague Nathaniel Popper will explain what you need to know and separate the blockchain hope from the hype.

Nathaniel spoke to me about why some technologists cant shut up about the blockchain and, in researching his latest article, what he found about how it might or might not! help people remodel the internet with less control by giants like Google and Facebook.

Shira: I need this explained to me repeatedly. What is the blockchain? And how is it different from Bitcoin?

Nathaniel: The blockchain in the simplest terms is a ledger a method of record keeping that was introduced to the public by Bitcoin, which is a cryptocurrency. Unlike conventional records kept by one bank or accountant, the blockchain ledger uses a bunch of computers that each add new entries visible to everyone.

The blockchain design that Bitcoin inspired has been adapted for other kinds of records. The underlying principle is there is no central authority controlling a single ledger. Everyone who is part of the system controls a decentralized and shared record.

Whats an example of how this might work?

A normal currency exchange might take your money, hold it and also hold the currency you buy. If it gets hacked, you could lose your money. With decentralized financial exchange based on the blockchain design, like what Bitcoin uses, you dont have to trust an authority with your money. Two people are automatically matched up through software, and they make the exchange directly with one another.

Blockchains sound pie-in-the-sky.

Thats what I believed for a long time. But these blockchain ideas are shifting from concepts to living though still clunky experiments.

On social networks like LBRY and Minds, people can see for themselves how its different from YouTube or Facebook. The concept is that no company is in control or can delete your account. Each user can see that a posted video or other material wasnt altered by anyone else.

Whether you agree or disagree with Twitter for kicking out Donald Trumps account after the attack on the Capitol, its an interesting idea that under a blockchain-based design, he might have been able to take his more than 80 million Twitter followers to another social network instead of losing them all.

Its going to be awhile before people can assess whether these blockchain applications really do what they propose and are an improvement over the status quo. Bitcoin has been around for a while and smart people still disagree about whether its useful.

There are always downsides. What are they for the blockchain?

One big downside is that central authorities are efficient at building reliable software and fixing it when things break. With a decentralized network of computers and programmers, theres no boss to say that this flaw must be fixed in 20 minutes.

And when theres a centralized system in finance or social networks, a government or another authority can stop terrorists or other criminals from using it. With blockchain-based designs, its harder to exercise control.

Why is there such fanatic devotion to Bitcoin and blockchains?

Bitcoin is like a social movement. The people using the system feel like theyre in charge because in essence theyre making the system run. Thats true for blockchain designs, too. They make people feel empowered in a way they arent with conventional software.

Bitcoin started with a lofty idea to democratize money. But now its like Beanie Babies a thing people buy to make money. Will the blockchain concept also degrade into something less pure?

Its true, many people using Bitcoin are just betting it will go up in value. But Bitcoin also gives people an incentive to get used to the weird concept of big systems that arent controlled by a single authority. Its likely that the excitement and even some of the greed around Bitcoin helped fuel these blockchain experiments.

Ive been transfixed for days by the saga of a Reddit message board and its crusade involving the video game retailer GameStop.

The short version: Several Wall Street professionals are betting that the price of GameStop stock will fall and are smugly confident theyre right. A Reddit group called WallStreetBets has been trying to prove them wrong or just mess with them by organizing to drive up GameStops share price. The companys shares are going haywire. Its all weird and there are no heroes in this tale. (Check out Matt Levines column in Bloomberg Opinion about this.)

When I see the Redditors versus the Wall Street dudes, Im reminded of how being online has changed the way we relate to one another. There is no bright line between internet life and real life.

WallStreetBets exhibits the same kind of engaged, hyper-online social momentum that helped drive the presidential candidacies of Mr. Trump and Andrew Yang and is behind the Korean pop fans who make sure their favorite bands trend online and who engage in political activism.

The GameStop campaigns swarming behavior, unity around a common cause and inside jokes like the one about chicken tenders have similar mechanics as the gaggles who harass gay and transgender video creators on TikTok and got a research ship named Boaty McBoatface a few years ago. (To be clear, stock trading campaigns arent the same as harassing teenagers.)

Ryan Broderick, an internet culture writer, wrote in his Garbage Day newsletter that the GameStop saga showed the similarities between social media and the stock market. If you can create enough hype around something, through memes, conspiracy theories, and harassment campaigns, you can manifest it into reality, he wrote.

My colleague Nellie Bowles wrote this week about the ways that working through screens has started to infuse office culture with the worst elements of aggressive internet conversations. Thats not dissimilar to whats happening with this dark corner of stock market speculation. Humans are adapting to online life in ways that sometimes feel thrilling and other times nihilistic and horrifying.

May we all experience the joy that Nia Dennis, a U.C.L.A. gymnast, is having in this routine. (Thanks to our California Today writer, Jill Cowan, for featuring this video.)

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.

If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.

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What is a Blockchain? Is It Hype? - The New York Times

FAQ Chia-Network/chia-blockchain Wiki GitHub

Table of ContentsWhat are harvesters, farmers, full nodes, and timelords?

You can read about each of them and the architecture in the network architecture document. The consensus document is the most current documentation, however. You can also check out our Timelord documentation.

A proof of space is a proof that a farmer has allocated a portion of their storage in a way that is very difficult to create in real-time but efficient to pre-compute and store on a hard drive. The Chia Proof of Space Construction document goes deeply into the math and implementation considerations to mitigate Hellman's Time - Memory tradeoff problem. A plot is a large set of proofs of space. A harvester can harvest multiple plots on the same machine. A farmer can then control multiple harvesters across many machines to manage the whole "farm."

Farming uses substantially less electricity than Proof of Work for the same unit of security. You can learn more at chiapower.org.

A VDF, also known as a proof of time, is a sequential operation that takes a prescribed amount of time to compute (and which cannot be accelerated by parallelism) and which produces an accompanying proof whose result may be quickly verified. This must be done in a group, for which Chia uses ideal class groups. You can learn about them in our class group document. Timelords usually run three VDFs at a time for the three internal blockchains of the Chia blockchain. They run as vdf_client processes.

XCH is the currency symbol for Chia. TXCH is the currency symbol currently being used for testnet chias. TXCH has no value and is only used for testing purposes. Chias and testnet chias can be divided up to 12 decimal places (trillionths). The smallest unit of chia, a trillionth of a chia, is called a mojo, as a tribute to Mojo Nation, a decentralized file storage platform created in the early 2000s by Zooko Wilcox, Bram Cohen, and others.

"k" is the space parameter that controls the size of plots. It is an integer for the following equation: plot_size_bytes = C1 * 2^k(k + C2) where C1 is constant 1 and C2 is constant 2. In practice this means that final size is roughly ((2 * k) + 1) * (2 ** (k - 1)) * 0.762 though that constant is estimated. You can examine the Space Required section of the Chia Proof of Space Construction document for the calculation of how much space is required for a given k.

You can see some example plot sizes, times to plot, and working space needed based on various k's in these k size tables. Current working space needed for the default plotting options of a k=32 is 239 GiB and the final file is approximately 101.4 GiB. There is small natural variation in temp space needed and the final file size of each plot. Note that 239 GiB is 256.6 GB.

The minimum plot size is k=32. There is only one reason why you might want to plot larger than k=32: to maximize the total utilization of a given drive or space. A couple of k=33 plots with a majority of k=32 plots can reduce the amount of leftover unused space on a drive.

The reason k=32 was chosen as the minimum plot size was to prevent a short-range replotting attack, which is detailed in our consensus doc. The gist of the attack is that if someone can create a plot in less than ~30 seconds, they could create a new plot that passes the filter for each signage point, and then delete the new plot immediately afterward. This would effectively emulate storing 512 plots, thus turning Chia into PoW.

This attack won't be economically feasible for some time, if ever. Two potential mitigation techniques are to lower the plot filter (thus reducing the benefit of the attack), or to increase the minimum plot size (thus making the attack more difficult to perform).

k=32 is expected to be the minimum plot size until at least 2026. If and when that size is increased, you will be given ample notice to replot before the change is made effective.

We think you will want to use used Data Center grade NVMe SSD drives to create your plots. Regular consumer NVMe SSD generally has too low of a TBW rating. One of our community members keeps this handy SSD Endurance document up to date so you can compare various SSDs. You should never use your root/OS SSD to plot as it can lead to drive failure and loss of booting. You can plot directly to hard drives and get good results, especially if you plot in parallel to different drives. You can use non-root SSD over Thunderbolt 3 and migrate your plots off to whatever storage you want to keep them on long term. You could even load them on a Raspberry Pi 4 with outdated USB 2.0 drives attached and they will harvest and farm just fine. PC World offers this great background on current storage technologies but this graph gives you a quick view of why we recommend NVMe SSD:

Yes, using either the GUI or CLI. Over the short run you have a bit more control of plotting using the CLI. There are tips for Windows users and Mac users can find their CLI commands in the Quick Start Guide. You may have better results if you stagger the start time of parallel plotting processes depending on your hardware setup.

Yes. The moving plots topic here on the wiki gives you the details. You may also want to consider running a remote harvester. You can also use the same private key set to plot on more than one machine at a time but be aware of the uPnP issues.

-2 is in use during phase 3 and 4. It is the file being built into the resulting .plot file. As it is done compressing tables during phase 3, it will move them into the .plot.2.tmp file (-2), and phase 4 will scan through the entire .plot.2.tmp (-2) file, and write table headers for easy access by the harvester. When phase 4 is done, if -2 = -d, it will simply rename the .plot.2.tmp to .plot. If -2 != -d, it will copy the file into place, then rename, and finally remove the -2 file. The amount of writing is about 110% of the resulting .plot file size. It is a setup dependent option - is your setup faster at moving the compressed tables into the .plot.2.tmp file, and then scan through the entire file, and write table headers during phase 4 - and then copy to -d (-2 = -t) - or is it faster to send the compressed tables directly into the -d (-2 = -d) directory, and then in phase 4, scan through the entire file, and write table headers inside -d (-2 = -d) thereby skipping the final copy into place. The -2 directory can be set in the Advanced Options for Step 3 in the GUI.

If you see something like Caught plotting error: Not enough memory for sort in memory. Need to sort X.XXGiB then you need to either select more memory buffer or more buckets. More buckets require less memory but will create more temp files and more sporadic disk writing. You will almost always want to use 128 buckets and you should try increasing the RAM max usage/-b to 4608MiB.

This is a RAM problem with your machine. It can be how your swap file is configured. It is often your overclock, or XMP settings and even can be a faulty RAM stick. Chia plotting is better than memtest at surfacing broken or mis-configured RAM.

Unfortunately, resuming a plot is not supported. We suggest that you disable power saving mode - especially for external drives - and try to limit other possible causes of interruptions. Plotting a k=32 could take multiple hours, depending on your hardware, so these interruptions can be painful. They are also a part of why we don't recommend plotting plots larger than k=32 as each increment in k generally doubles the time to complete a single plot.

No. Plotting can be done entirely offline and needs nothing from the blockchain to complete. The only time you have to be online and synced is when you're farming so that you receive new challenges for the next blocks and transactions to include in a transaction block if you're lucky enough to win one of them and get the transaction fees. Note that one farmer winning is independent of other farmers winning at the same time. All farmers can "win" at nearly the same time. That is why sometimes there are 10 blocks in one minute, and sometimes there is only 1 block per minute, etc.

No. As long as you plot at least k=32, those plots will be eligible to win on mainnet. In a decade or more, k=32 may become too small, but that's speculative. Usually the only reason to plot larger than k=32 is to optimize using all of the space on a given drive. For example, it may make sense to have two k=33's and the rest k=32 so that you only leave 10 GB free on a given drive.

Yes.

Run chia plots check -n 30 to try 30 sample challenges for each plot. Each of your plots should return a number around 30, which means it found around 100% of the attempted proofs of space. If you're still worried try -n 100 as more random attempts will give you a more valid assessment that the plots is fine. It really is ok if your plot is within 80%-120%. If some of your plots are missing for some reason you may need to add the directory they are in to your config.yaml file. That can be done in the GUI with the MANAGE PLOT DIRECTORIES button or on the command line with chia plots add -d [directory].

UPnP is an optional setting that allows users to open a port in their router and therefore allow other nodes to connect to them. This is not required, since your node can still make outgoing connections without UPnP.

For some routers, UPnP is enabled automatically, but for others, you might have to go into your router settings and enable UPnP manually. Sometimes restarting the router is also necessary.

Another option is port forwarding, where you tell your router/NAT to forward requests on port 8444 or 58444 for testnet to your machine.

First, running more than one node with the same private keys on your home network is wasting bandwidth by syncing two copies of the blockchain over your download link. You can get the same results by running one node and using multiple harvesters on multiple computers. Second, if you have uPnP enabled on both nodes and your home router supports uPnP (and most do) it will cause both of your nodes to not sync the blockchain. You need to disable uPnP on all or all but one node behind a uPnP enabled router. The CLI command chia configure --enable-upnp false will turn uPnP off on a node. It requires a restart of the node to take effect. If you disable UPnP on all but one of your nodes then your local router will forward inbound 8444 traffic to the one node and the rest will now be able to connect to the network but just will not accept inbound connections from the network.

Step 1. Make sure you are running the most recent version of the Chia software. Check out the INSTALL page.

Step 2. If your node has no connections, it could be one of many reasons. The most likely reason is that there are no users with space to have new connections, so you cannot connect to them. To solve this, you should try opening port 8444 on your router so other peers can connect to you. Follow the steps here: Resolving Sync Issues Port 8444

Port 8444 is the port through which other Chia computers can communicate with your PC. When you set up port forwarding on port 8444, the Chia software on your computer can quickly talk to other PCs, link up, and start downloading and syncing with the Chia blockchain.

The network is undergoing rapid growth and expansion. Many of the newly arrived Chia peers (computers) do not open up port 8444. It makes it very hard for the network. So please port forward on port 8444!

Use this link to check if your router's port 8444 is closed: https://portchecker.co/

Step 3: You might need to disable UPnP in the config file (~/.chia/mainnet/config/config.yaml) or by using the cli command chia configure -upnp false. You might have multiple nodes running on the same machine, or in the same wifi network. Make sure to close all Chia applications on your computer. Also check your firewall or antivirus software, which might be blocking connections.

Step 4: Try deleting your peer DB which is located at ~/.chia/mainnet/db/peer_table_node.sqlite. Close then restart Chia.

Step 5: Edit ~/.chia/mainnet/config/config.yaml, search for weight_proof_timeout and increase it from 180 to 400. If that value is not there, you can add it under the full_node section.

It can take a few minutes to start receiving peers and several hours to completely sync.

This is usually a system clock issue, which is causing the display of "Not synced", even though you are. Your clock must be set to the exact time, and cannot be more than 5 minutes off. Check your phone and your computer and ensure the time is the same.

Beginning in 1.3, Chia uses version 2 of its blockchain database. The new database is still written in SQLite, but it has undergone a series of optimizations, such as storing hashes in binary, rather than human-readable hex format. It also is more compressed than version 1. These two factors combined have resulted in an approximately 45% reduction in the size of the database, as well as a slight improvement in its performance.

If you install a brand new full node in Chia 1.3 or later, version 2 of the database will be created when you run chia init. If you want to stick with version 1, simply run chia init --v1-db instead.

If you were already were running a full node prior to upgrading to Chia 1.3, the upgrade will not happen automatically. The command to perform the upgrade is chia db upgrade. This is documented in detail in our CLI reference.

You do not need to stop Chia in order to perform the upgrade. This is because the program performing the upgrade only needs to read from your original database file, while your upgraded file will be written alongside it in the same folder. Be sure you have enough free space on the disk that contains your database file to write the new file.

The current size requirement (2nd quarter 2022) is around 55 GB. Note that the database is always growing, so the size requirement for the v2 database will have gone up by the time you are reading this plan accordingly.

The upgrade could take several hours, so feel free to perform it at your leisure. After the upgrade has completed, run chia start farmer -r to restart your farmer and switch to the new database.

Note that the new database will have the same peak as version 1 at the time you initiated the upgrade. Your node will still need to run a short sync to fetch the remaining blocks that had gotten added while the upgrade was being performed.

Because the upgrade from version 1 to 2 of the database is time-consuming, most users will likely only perform it on one of their systems and copy the new database file to their other systems afterward. If you choose this option, be sure to either copy the file before running chia start farmer -r, or stop Chia altogether if it is already using the new database. Once the database is swapped from v1 to v2, you also need to update you config.yaml to reflect the new v2 database change. Under the full_node: section set database_path: db/blockchain_v1_CHALLENGE.sqlite to database_path: db/blockchain_v2_CHALLENGE.sqlite

WARNING: If you copy your database file to another computer while Chia is currently using it, you'll risk corrupting it, which will necessitate a full sync from genesis.

If you're interested in learning more technical details of the new database, see the first Github Pull Request that introduced the changes:https://github.com/Chia-Network/chia-blockchain/pull/9442

And there were two follow-up Pull Requests with additional improvements, along with some benchmarks.https://github.com/Chia-Network/chia-blockchain/pull/9454https://github.com/Chia-Network/chia-blockchain/pull/9455

Finally, here is the Pull Request that added the upgrade functionality:https://github.com/Chia-Network/chia-blockchain/pull/9613

When you load Chia's client GUI for the first time, you'll be asked to choose whether to run in Wallet Mode or Farming Mode. Here are the main features of each mode:

Wallet Mode:

Farming Mode:

To switch between Wallet Mode and Farming Mode, click the gear icon on the upper-right side of your client. The settings menu will appear. Click the desired mode.

Note that in both modes, the light wallet protocol is always used. This protocol will sync your wallet by only downloading information from a subset of the blocks. The more transactions your wallet has had, the longer this process will require.

The following are situations when your wallet will NOT connect to external peers:

For example, let's say you're running Chia for the first time and you have not modified connect_to_unknown_peers. Here is one potential workflow:

Depending on how you are using your Chia client, we recommend the following:

There are two types of peer nodes -- trusted/known and untrusted/unknown. By default, your local node is your only trusted node. It is possible to add other nodes to the trusted list, for example if you personally run more than one full node. One reason to add a trusted node is to speed up the sync time of your light wallet.

The light wallet protocol has two techniques to sync:

Typically, it is much faster to sync a wallet by connecting to a trusted node. Therefore, if you have access to a synced node that you trust, you may want to add that node to your trusted peers list. We recommend that you only add your own full nodes to this list.

Inside the wallet: section in config.yaml, you should see trusted_peers:. Add a new line with the value of Node ID, like this example (do not use this Node ID, use the one from your trusted node):

This response will give a non-technical overview of Chia's light wallet syncing process. For technical info, see our docs site, as well as the FlyClient White Paper, which details the process from which Chia's light client is based.

First, a bit about addresses in Chia. A single Chia wallet can use up to four billion (2^32) addresses. Hopefully, you won't need more than that! Using multiple addresses can help provide anonymity. Rather than having to sign up for a new account each time you want to receive money, you can simply click "NEW ADDRESS" and presto -- a new address appears. Additionally, each time you receive change from sending money, a new address is automatically generated. Your wallet keeps track of each of the addresses that have been used. As long as your wallet is synced, it always knows how much money you have.

One important thing to remember is that your wallet addresses will always be generated in the same order. When you generate a "new" address, you're actually calculating the next address in the sequence. Your wallet doesn't know what the next address will be until it's generated, but the sequence will always be the same. For example, if you generate 50 new addresses (and write them down), and then install Chia on a new computer and import the same wallet, the first 50 addresses you generate will exactly match those from your original computer.

Next, we'll introduce a setting called initial_num_public_keys. This setting is part of config.yaml, located in ~/.chia/mainnet/config on Linux and MacOS, and C:Users.chiamainnetconfig on Windows. The default value of this setting is 100. The majority of users should not change it.

You can think of initial_num_public_keys as the number of future addresses to examine. It's a window that expands with time (and never contracts). Here's how it works:

The first time you run Chia's software, your wallet will attempt to sync. It does this by checking the first address in the sequence. If that address has ever received money, your wallet will account for that transaction history and examine the next address, and so on. It would take a very long time to examine all four billion addresses, so your wallet will stop looking at some point. This is where initial_num_public_keys comes in.

By default, your wallet will stop after it has examined 100 straight addresses that have never received money. If it examines 50 empty addresses and then finds a transaction on the 51st address, the number left to examine is reset back to 100. Because the addresses always appear in the same sequence, it will be rare to have even a single address without any transaction history. But there is one exception: if you click "NEW ADDRESS" twice, then one address will remain unused. If you click "NEW ADDRESS" 101 times without receiving money at any of those addresses, then you'll have 100 consecutive unused addresses in the sequence. Let's say you receive money at the 101st address. When your wallet attempts to sync, it will stop looking after the 100th blank address. Transactions from subsequent addresses will remain undiscovered, and your balance will be incorrect.

The default setting for initial_num_public_keys is quite conservative -- it should be rare for anyone to click "NEW ADDRESS" more than 100 times without actually using any of those addresses. That said, you might have a legitimate reason to do this, for example if you're running an exchange. In that case, feel free to set initial_num_public_keys to a higher number, stop your wallet, delete your wallet database, and start your wallet again to begin a fresh sync.

Why not set initial_num_public_keys to a higher number by default? Because it would take longer for your wallet to sync. Why not set it lower? If the default setting were 2, most wallets would likely still show the correct balance and the sync time would be faster. However, we set the default to 100 to prioritize showing the correct balance over syncing as fast as possible.

How does your wallet know it has the correct info for each address? It polls one or more of its peers. These peers can be either trusted or untrusted, as explained in the previous question. By default, your own node is the only one you trust. If your node is fully synced, then your wallet only needs to query your node to determine your transaction history for each address. If your node is not fully synced, then your wallet will query a number of peers about this info. If any of them lie, omit info, or disconnect in the middle of a query, your wallet will know because the responses won't all match.

If you believe your balance is incorrect, changing initial_num_public_keys is unlikely to fix the problem. If at all possible, you should sync a full node, stop Chia, delete your wallet database, and start Chia again. This time, Chia will sync based on your own node alone. If this is not an option, then resyncing from untrustred nodes might fix the problem as well.

If you see plots in the Plots section of the Farm page in the GUI - your plots are being farmed. You will see challenges and proof attempts as they come through in the Last Attempted Proof section however you usually will not have a proof worth sending to the network due to the plot filter. You can additionally see the Total Size of Plots on the Farm view and it will tell you how much unique space is being farmed and statistically how long it should take - on average - to win a block.Also, your node needs to be synced for you to farm properly. In the GUI, check the Full Node page. On the cli, do chia show -s -c.

No. You have 30 seconds to respond to challenges.

ChiaCalculator.com does a good job at running the numbers.

First, the bad news. Statistically, it would take multiple years to win a reward with a 10-TB farm. ("So you're saying there's a chance...")

Now, the good news. You can join a pool and collect regular rewards, no matter your farm's size! See our Pooling User Guide for more info.

Farmers compute a plot filter based on the signage point, their plot id, and the sub-slot challenge - which are hashed together to create the plot filter bits. If the plot filter bits start with 9 zeroes, that plot passes the filter for that signage point, and can proceed. This disqualifies around 511/512 of all proofs of space on the network, for each signage point. There are 4608 * 2 or 9216 signage points per day so the average plot should pass the filter 18 times per 24 hours on average. Once a plot passes the plot filter it then competes for the best proof of space with every other plot that also passed that plot filter for that signage point. For reasons that aren't super simple to intuit, the only thing each plot is competing on is to have the best proof of space and thus the chances of getting a reward depend on total size of plots on the farm - even with the plot filter in place.

As long as the plot passes the filter, and do not have any internal file errors, the plot will always be eligible to compete for the best proof of space. Moving the plot to another directory or server will not change its eligibility.

Please note that the speed of your lookups when passing the plot filter should be below 5 and preferably below 2 seconds. When you actually win a reward, your drive will have to do more lookups than these, so it's important that the the lookups are happening fast.

Yes you can. Please check the Pooling User Guide.

There is a possible attack where an attacker who can co-ordinate N deep from the tip of the chain can try to coerce a winning farmer to re-write a historical transaction block. This attack is much more difficult and thus less of a risk in new consensus and thus we only recommend deleting and re-plotting a plot to farmers with in excess of 1PB of farm size. Anyone smaller than that would be difficult for an attacker to locate and can more safely continue to farm plots that have already won. We plan to have the software automate the process up to and including kicking off a remote plotting process if the current hardware that a farmer or harvester are on is not up to the task of re-plotting. But to repeat, deleting winning plots is, and will always be, totally optional.

No, your plots are virtually unaffected by the passage of time, aside from hardware errors. Even in the presence of bit flips due to aging hardware, plots remain mostly effective. The only cases where you would need to re-plot are: 1. if you are using solo plots (not NFT plots) and wish to join a pool (please see note below) or 2. if hardware speeds advance to the point of a certain k value becoming obsolete (e.g., k=32 becomes too fast to plot and we ban them, forcing you to replace them with k33 plots). For case 1., you are free to have any mix of solo plots and pool plots if you do not want to re-plot. For case 2., k=32 is not expected to become outdated until sometime between 2026-2031.

It is unlikely, but it is possible. There are multiple reasons why this might be the case. The most common is that due to network delay, or drive speed delay (for example using a slow NAS), you missed the time for inclusion into the blockchain, which is 28 seconds. This time is from when the timelords create the signage points, to when the timelords infuse your block. Check to make sure that you are connected and synced to multiple peers, and that your quality lookup are fast (<2 seconds, definitely less than 5). Another reason might be that the signage point where you won did not get included into the blockchain. This can sometimes happen, since timelords may publish signage points that don't end up on chain.

The Wallets page in the GUI will display your receive address and provide an interface for you to spend your chia funds. You can also obtain a new wallet receive address any time you would like and those funds will all come to the same place as they are based on HD Keys.

There is growing wallet functionality available on the command line. Try chia wallet -h. Wallet software also provides features related to CAT's, and trade offers. You can get a receive address on the cli with chia keys show.

The coin (or UTXO) model is a Bitcoin-style transaction model which is also used in Chia. Your wallet keeps track of a set of coins, where each coin can be any amount of XCH. When spending a coin (making a transaction), you have to spend the entire amount, and split that coin into multiple outputs, called coin additions. One addition is to the recipient of the transaction, and the other one is to you, as change. The change usually goes to a new address, so you will not see it in your normal address on Chia explorer, but your wallet will keep track of it and include it in the balance. Each block in Chia is a list of removals (coins spent) and additions (coins created). There are no transactions in the blockchain, which is why you cannot lookup transactions in the block explorers.

HD or Hierarchical Deterministic keys are a type of public key/private key scheme where one private key can have a nearly infinite number of different public keys (and therefor wallet receive addresses) that will all ultimately come back to and be spendable by a single private key.

Small reorgs in Chia are possible, though rare. In order to be confident that your transaction won't be reorged, you should wait around six blocks, or two minutes, after the first confirmation. More details are available in our consensus documentation.

Try the following options:

To delete your wallet DB follow these steps:

Your pending transaction can take a few minutes if blocks are full. If it's not confirmed after a while, your pending transaction might be stuck. Try the following steps:

Known problem: After your wallet is resynced, any previous outgoing transaction will appear as incoming transaction at the block height you made the outgoing transaction.

Visit chia.net/buy-xch for instructions on buying Chia with USDS and offers using the Chia light wallet and Offers.

There are also several exchanges that offer XCH. You can see a list of exchanges supporting XCH here. This list is for informational purposes only. It is up to the reader to do their own research on the best exchange for their needs.

If you were running the light wallet beta app (v1.2.11 dev 265) and youve upgraded to the latest beta (v1.2.12+), you can get your offer history and your CAT wallets back by following these instructions:

This is because of the newly integrated light wallet client sync. The wallet will sync through the light wallet sync while the full node syncs up in the background. Once the full node is synced up, then the wallet will sync primarily through the local trusted full node.

If youve lost your offer history and want to cancel those offers but cant access them, then the only way to cancel the offer would be to send yourself a transaction with the CAT tokens that were part of the offer.

The wallet no longer automatically adds unknown CATs wallets for CATs that may have been airdropped to your wallet. This is to help ensure that syncing doesnt slow down with all the additional CATs that could suddenly show up. It is recommended that you use a tail database to look up and add. We understand that this will add some extra work to know which CATs to add wallets for and set them up manually. We do hope to improve upon this experience Soon

This is the way our tools work today. Just make sure when you submit feedback or an issue in Github to use the app version (1.2.12 dev269) when reporting it so we know exactly which version you're running.

Follow this link:

FAQ Chia-Network/chia-blockchain Wiki GitHub

Blockchain Gaming Proving Resilient Among Crypto Calamity – ETF Trends

  1. Blockchain Gaming Proving Resilient Among Crypto Calamity  ETF Trends
  2. Blockchain gaming under the microscope part 1: mass adoption?  World Economic Forum
  3. Blockchain gaming under the microscope part 4: what lies ahead  The European Sting
  4. Dappradar Report Shows Blockchain Gaming Thrived Amid FTX Collapse, Sector Accounted for 46% of All Network Activity Bitcoin News  Bitcoin News
  5. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Blockchain Gaming Proving Resilient Among Crypto Calamity - ETF Trends

This Deepfake AI Singing Dolly Parton’s "Jolene" Is Worryingly Good

Holly Herndon uses her AI twin Holly+ to sing a cover of Dolly Parton's

AI-lands in the Stream

Sorry, but not even Dolly Parton is sacred amid the encroachment of AI into art.

Holly Herndon, an avant garde pop musician, has released a cover of Dolly Parton's beloved and frequently covered hit single, "Jolene." Except it's not really Herndon singing, but her digital deepfake twin known as Holly+.

The music video features a 3D avatar of Holly+ frolicking in what looks like a decaying digital world.

And honestly, it's not bad — dare we say, almost kind of good? Herndon's rendition croons with a big, round sound, soaked in reverb and backed by a bouncy, acoustic riff and a chorus of plaintive wailing. And she has a nice voice. Or, well, Holly+ does. Maybe predictably indie-folk, but it's certainly an effective demonstration of AI with a hint of creative flair, or at least effective curation.

Checking the Boxes

But the performance is also a little unsettling. For one, the giant inhales between verses are too long to be real and are almost cajolingly dramatic. The vocals themselves are strangely even and, despite the somber tone affected by the AI, lack Parton's iconic vulnerability.

Overall, it feels like the AI is simply checking the boxes of what makes a good, swooning cover after listening to Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" a million times — which, to be fair, is a pretty good starting point.

Still, it'd be remiss to downplay what Herndon has managed to pull off here, and the criticisms mostly reflect the AI's limited capabilities more than her chops as a musician. The AI's seams are likely intentional, if her previous work is anything to go off of.

Either way, if you didn't know you were listening to an AI from the get-go, you'd probably be fooled. And that alone is striking.

The Digital Self

Despite AI's usually ominous implications for art, Herndon views her experiment as a "way for artists to take control of their digital selves," according to a statement on her website.

"Vocal deepfakes are here to stay," Herndon was quoted saying. "A balance needs to be found between protecting artists, and encouraging people to experiment with a new and exciting technology."

Whether Herndon's views are fatalistic or prudently pragmatic remains to be seen. But even if her intentions are meant to be good for artists, it's still worrying that an AI could pull off such a convincing performance.

More on AI music: AI That Generates Music from Prompts Should Probably Scare Musicians

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This Deepfake AI Singing Dolly Parton's "Jolene" Is Worryingly Good

There’s Something Strange About How These Stars Are Moving, Scientists Say

Astronomers are puzzled by the strange behavior of a crooked cluster of stars, which appears to be following an alternative theory of gravity.

Astronomers are puzzled by the strange behavior of certain crooked clusters of stars, which appear to be violating our conventional understanding of gravity.

Massive clusters of stars usually are bound together in spirals at the center of galaxies. Some of these clusters fall under a category astrophysicists call open star clusters, which are created in a relatively short period of time as they ignite in a huge cloud of gas.

During this process, loose stars accumulate in a pair of "tidal tails," one of which is being pulled behind, while the other moves ahead.

"According to Newton’s laws of gravity, it’s a matter of chance in which of the tails a lost star ends up," Jan Pflamm-Altenburg of the University of Bonn in Germany, co-author of a new paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in a statement. "So both tails should contain about the same number of stars."

But some of their recent observations seemingly defy conventional physics.

"However, in our work we were able to prove for the first time that this is not true," Pflamm-Altenburg added. "In the clusters we studied, the front tail always contains significantly more stars nearby to the cluster than the rear tail."

In fact, their new findings are far more in line with a different theory called "Modified Newtonian Dynamics" (MOND).

"Put simply, according to MOND, stars can leave a cluster through two different doors," Pavel Kroupa, Pflamm-Altenburg's colleague at the University of Bonn and lead author, explained in the statement. "One leads to the rear tidal tail, the other to the front."

"However, the first is much narrower than the second — so it’s less likely that a star will leave the cluster through it," he added. "Newton’s theory of gravity, on the other hand, predicts that both doors should be the same width."

The researchers' simulations, taking MOND into consideration, could explain a lot. For one, they suggest that open star clusters survive a much shorter period of time than what is expected from Newton's laws of physics.

"This explains a mystery that has been known for a long time," Kroupa explained. "Namely, star clusters in nearby galaxies seem to be disappearing faster than they should."

But not everybody agrees that Newton's laws should be replaced with MOND, something that could shake the foundations of physics.

"It’s somewhat promising, but it does not provide completely definitive evidence for MOND," University of Saint Andrews research fellow Indranil Banik told New Scientist. "This asymmetry does make more sense in MOND, but in any individual cluster there could be other effects that are causing it — it’s a bit unlikely that would happen in all of them, though."

The researchers are now trying to hone in on an even more accurate picture by stepping up the accuracy of their simulations, which could either support their MOND theory — or conclude that Newton was, in fact, correct the first time around.

More on star clusters: Something Is Ripping Apart the Nearest Star Cluster to Earth

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There's Something Strange About How These Stars Are Moving, Scientists Say