This is What Your Lungs Look Like With COVID-19

The George Washington University Hospital has released a 3D video of a 59-year-old male COVID-19 patient's lungs days after showing no coronavirus symptoms.

The George Washington University Hospital in DC has released a 3D video of a 59-year-old male coronavirus patient’s lungs just days after showing no symptoms at all.

The video itself shows extensive damage and inflammation shown in yellow. A pair of healthy lungs would show no yellow areas at all.

The patient now needs a ventilator to breathe and a separate machine to circulate and oxygenate his blood.

“This is not a 70, 80-year-old immunosuppressed, diabetic patient,” Keith Mortman, the chief of thoracic surgery at George Washington University Hospital, told CNN. “Other than high blood pressure, he has no other significant medical issues. This is a guy who’s minding his own business and gets it.”

“For these patients who essentially present in progressive respiratory failure, the damage to the lungs is rapid and widespread,” Mortman told CNN. “Unfortunately, once damaged to this degree, the lungs can take a long time to heal. For approximately 2-4 percent of patients with Covid-19, the damage is irreversible and they will succumb to the disease.”

“I want people to see this and understand what this can do,” Mortman said. “People need to take this seriously.”

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Elon Musk: NY Gigafactory Will Reopen to Produce Ventilators

Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk is still hoping to reopen one of his electric car company's Gigafactories for ventilator production.

Hyperventilator

After sourcing some 1,255 ventilators from Chinese manufacturers and donating them to hospitals in the Los Angeles area, mercurial Tesla CEO Elon Musk is still hoping to reopen one of his electric car company’s Gigafactories for ventilator production.

“Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible,” Musk wrote in a Wednesday tweet, referring to Tesla’s factory in Buffalo, New York. “We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York.”

“Making good progress,” Musk added in a separate tweet. “We will do whatever is needed to help in these difficult times.”

A Severe Shortage

Ventilators are critically important for healthcare right now. They are vital for COVID-19 patients who are experiencing severe symptoms. And according to The New York Times, there aren’t nearly enough ventilators to cope with an onslaught of cases in New York state.

The news comes after Musk pushed back against closing his company’s Fremont factory in California well into the beginning of a now global shutdown, refusing to comply with the Bay Area’s “shelter in place” order.

Last week, Musk first offered to make ventilators at one of Tesla’s factories. “Tesla makes cars with sophisticated [HVAC] systems,” Musk explained in a tweet last week. “SpaceX makes spacecraft with life support systems. Ventilators are not difficult, but cannot be produced instantly.”

READ MORE: Tesla CEO Elon Musk: New York gigafactory will reopen for ventilator production [TechCrunch]

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Elon Musk: NY Gigafactory Will Reopen to Produce Ventilators

The US Space Force Is About to Finally Leave the Planet

The U.S. Space Force is scheduled to conduct its first launch on Thursday afternoon. It's expected to deliver the final part of a new communication network.

Go Time

The recently-formed U.S. Space Force will actually venture out into orbit for the first time on Thursday.

The mission, which will send a military communication satellite into orbit from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, is still on track for its 3 p.m. EST launch, according to Ars Technica. That’s because, unlike other groups like SpaceX and NASA, military spaceports in the U.S. have thus far escaped unscathed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Bare Bones

However, the mission has been altered somewhat by the pandemic, even if the launch itself is proceeding as scheduled. Ars Technica reports that the usual fanfare surrounding a rocket launch, like a social media event and other forms of outreach, have been cancelled.

That said, people can still watch the launch if they so desire on this livestream.

Final Piece

If the Space Force mission succeeds, the U.S. military will be able to bring online a new constellation of communication satellites. With the satellite that’s being launched today in place, the military will finally be able to replace the outdated network that it’s been relying on.

Five of the six satellites in the new network are already in place, Ars Technica reports. Some have been waiting in geostationary orbit for ten full years, as the military has been slowly sending them up since 2010.

READ MORE: For the first time, the US Space Force will actually go to space today [Ars Technica]

More on space: Space Force Working “Pretty Closely With Elon Musk and SpaceX”

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The US Space Force Is About to Finally Leave the Planet

Meanwhile, The Great Barrier Reef Had a Horrible Bleaching Event

The Great Barrier Reef just suffered its third mass coral bleaching event in three years, forcing authorities to make grim predictions for its future.

Dying Off

The Great Barrier Reef just suffered its third mass coral bleaching event in just five years, and officials are now giving even more dire predictions for the reef’s future.

Australian officials have now downgraded the long-term outlook for the Great Barrier Reef to “very poor,” reports Agence France-Presse. The bad news drives home — yet again — that we are already facing very real consequences of the climate change crisis.

Widespread Damage

The new bleaching event is particularly troubling because it’s far more widespread than the two that occurred in 2016 and 2017, AFP reports.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the agency that updated the reef’s prognosis, reports that there was “moderate or severe bleaching” even in areas that hadn’t yet been damaged at all during previous bleaching events.

Heating Up

The Australian government says that it’s exceeded its emission goals and is ahead of the pack, as far as keeping to the Paris climate agreement is concerned, but experts told AFP that it still needs to do more.

There’s an “urgent need for reef-safe climate policies,” Shani Tager of the Australian Marine Conservation Society told AFP.

READ MORE: Great Barrier Reef suffers mass coral bleaching event [Agence France-Presse­]

More on the Great Barrier Reef: Scientists Testify: The Great Barrier Reef Can’t Be Saved Through Current Efforts

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Meanwhile, The Great Barrier Reef Had a Horrible Bleaching Event

Study: Yes, Half of Coronavirus Carriers Show No Symptoms

Iceland just showed the world just how spreadable and wide-ranging the coronavirus is, as over half the people they tested are showing no symptoms at all.

What we’re learning from Iceland this week is as fascinating as it is crucial to fighting the coronavirus epidemic: That somewhere in the neighborhood of half of everyone testing positive for the coronavirus will show absolutely no symptoms.

The hard data, out of Iceland, straight from their (impressive) health ministry’s dedicated COVID-19 page:

– As of March 25, Iceland has administered 12,615 tests.
– Of those tests, Iceland has found 802 confirmed cases.
– While it might not sound like a lot, in a sparsely-populated nation of around 364,000 citizens, it’s an impressive number. They’ve nearly tested 3.4 percent of the entire country (compared to the United States, and according to the COVID-19 Project data tracker: we’ve tested 432,655 of our 327 million citizens, or just a tenth of one percent of our country’s population). Iceland currently claims to have tested more citizens per capita] than any other country in the world.

Needless to say, Iceland’s efforts are revealing fascinating and potentially lifesaving details about the virus. And via BuzzFeed News, it’s how they came to the striking conclusion about symptom rates, emphasis ours:

“Early results from deCode Genetics indicate that a low proportion of the general population has contracted the virus and that about half of those who tested positive are non-symptomatic,” said [Iceland’s chief epidemiologist Thorolfur] Guðnason. “The other half displays very moderate cold-like symptoms.”

Consider: Right now, in America, if you don’t have a fever, or aches, or any other cold or flu-like symptoms, nobody would tell you not to go to the store. Nobody would tell you not to leave your apartment. Unless you had been in contact with someone who tested positive, showed symptoms, or to an epicenter of the outbreak, nobody would advise you to self-quarantine. Because nobody would be advising you to quarantine, you could still be spreading the virus to other people — and of course, in any of those places, other people who should be quarantined could be spreading the virus to you.

This is the value of widespread testing. If we knew you had it, we would tell you: Isolate yourself, stay inside. In America, we’re currently testing mostly just to confirm suspected cases of COVID-19. In America, in order to get a test, right now, you’re likely on your way to or at a hospital. Or you have symptoms (labored breathing, high fever) that could send you there. In Iceland, again, they’re just testing, testing, testing, whoever they can, whenever they can.

They haven’t implemented a lockdown or a curfew, but they have banned gatherings of over 20 people, advised quarantine measures, and again: Test, test, test. Having widespread testing allows them to isolate those with the virus, and thus, the virus itself. Even more, it empowers Iceland to continue some semblance of life as it normally is — more than many, many other places in the world without the kind of testing operation that they have can say for themselves right now. In other words: Iceland’s citizenry might be small, but what they lack for in size, they more than make up for in power — by doing nothing more than being accounted for, handing out an urgent lesson the entire world can stand to learn from right now.

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BlockApps and Optimum Plan to Track Energy Usage on the Blockchain – Cointelegraph

Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) company BlockApps has partnered with software consulting firm Optimum to develop a blockchain solution for tracking energy usage.

A founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), BlockApps is the developer of a cloud-agnostic blockchain platform, STRATO, designed to serve as a flexible base layer for various business network transactions and activities.

Optimum is a software consulting firm focused on the oil and gas, manufacturing and construction industries. As part of a strategic partnership announced on March 27, Optimum has now joined the BlockApps Partner Network a group of technology and service providers and blockchain experts cooperating on application development and integrations for STRATO.

In their announcement, BlockApps and Optimum allude to recent intense pressure on the global energy industry, triggered by a price war in the oil sector, strained supply chains and the economic shocks rippling through world markets during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Verifiable, granular energy usage tracking is a mission-critical need for the energy industry and will be an essential part of any solution to improve management of future shocks in supply and demand.

Optimum plans to implement BlockApps STRATO platform to develop and customize blockchain solutions that will address the needs and challenges of their clients in the oil and gas, manufacturing and construction sectors at a juncture of unprecedented challenges.

U.S. crude oil prices have now dropped to an 18-year low of below $20 a barrel. The sector faces a glut of supplies and insufficient storage for reserves due to collapsing global demand. A number of North American shale producers are already reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy.

In May 2019, BlockApps partnered with the agricultural division of pharmaceutical and life science giant Bayer AG which acquired the agrochemical and agricultural corporation Monsanto in 2018 to cooperate on a series of joint blockchain initiatives.

BlockApps connections include integrations with major cloud providers Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform and the numerous blockchain start-ups, research groups, Fortune 500 firms and banks among them JPMorgan and Cisco of the EEA.

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BlockApps and Optimum Plan to Track Energy Usage on the Blockchain - Cointelegraph

Survey reveals consumer acceptance and willingness to use blockchain – New Food

Blockchain is said to still be in its infancy in terms of widespread use, but a survey from FMCG Gurus has indicated a willingness from consumers to integrate it into food supply chains.

In Q3 2019, FMCG Gurus surveyed 26,000 consumers across 26 countries on the topic of blockchain, to find out more about consumer attitudes and acceptance of the technology.

Blockchain is an example of a distributed ledger technology (DLT) which is distributed, as opposed to centralised. The system records data in many places, each of which is owned by the actors within the blockchain, allowing the idea of trust and integrity to be improved across the chain.

The research found that 18 percent of consumers across the globe were currently aware of the technology, but when given a definition, a total of 50 percent said that they would be likely to use it to find out more about food, drink and nutritional supplements.

A total of 31 percent of global consumers said that they do not trust food brands, whilst 25 percent said they have become less trusting of food brands in the last two years something that blockchain could potentially help with.

When it comes to using blockchain, those who said they would use the technology said that they would research many areas to find out more about the product in question and its supply chain.

The most popular answer that consumers would investigate across the globe would be to check the level of carbon footprint omitted during the distribution of products (58 percent). However, the research also showed that consumers are interested in finding out about sustainability initiatives along the whole of the supply chain.

51 percent said it is important that brands monitor the supply chains of their suppliers to ensure that they are acting in an ethical and environmentally friendly manner.

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Survey reveals consumer acceptance and willingness to use blockchain - New Food

How Blockchain Technology Offers Computational Trust For Tracking The Coronavirus Outbreak – Forbes

Before our lives as U.S. citizens were upended as we knew it, the idea of some data nerds hoping to cure the U.S. healthcare system of all its ailments probably would not be in the headlines. With the limited activities of life inside, surfing the web to learn the latest on coronavirus is one activity in which most Americans are likely to engage. This story examines how blockchain technology may help us trust the information we are given as accurate and timely.

Man self isolating at home

In an age where information is at our fingertips, a recent poll from NPR provides insights into who we trust most in providing us information on coronavirus. With the choices including the President, news media, state and local officials, and public health experts, public health experts led the pack when it came to entrusting the accuracy of information provided.

One of these public health experts is providing a nervous population timely and accurate information on coronavirus. Jim Nasr is the CEO of Acoer and has offered a data visualization tool for COVID-19 offering real-time and trusted information on coronavirus. As the former Chief Software Architect at the Center for Disease Control in the Obama Administration, he is someone most Americans would likely trust on receiving much-needed accurate and timely information.

Coronavirus written on file folder label

It is not just his credentials that might lead you to trust him - he also uses blockchain-enabled technology to create a Coronavirus (COVID-19) tracker, where machines provide the fuel for trusting the data inputs. Mr. Nasr defines blockchain as a computational trust protocol, and uses Hedera Hashgraph, a public distributed ledger technology, to create trust in the data used in his visualization tool.

Jim sees blockchain as a way of providing trusted data to the public when the source of the information is at a premium in the case of the current pandemic. He noted, For most Americans, blockchain is a term that is becoming more and more familiar and typically involves a connection to bitcoin. As a peer-to-peer exchange of digital currency, blockchains first use case in 2009 was bitcoin. Jim sees the conflation of these concepts as a negative for how the technology can be leveraged in health care.

The more we talk about other use cases, the less we talk about bitcoin, the better. Regarding his view of what is distinctive about blockchain, he states, Blockchain is a platform for computational trust.

To understand the benefit of blockchain to this visualization, data from the CDC, World Health Organization, and clinicaltrials.gov is digested into the system and a reference file including the data and metadata is created that matches this information to the source. This file is confirmed by a blockchain or distributed ledger technology where a timestamp of when the information was received and from what source is securely recorded and publicly available for others to review.

Jim states the distributed ledger technology he uses (known as Hedera Hashgraph) is a way to provide the public a tamperproof transaction log of everything that has happened on Hedera,. With extremely efficient and computationally sound aspects that makes Hedera Hashgraph one of the trusted platforms he uses to offer a computational trust layer to prove what I have done.

Victoria Adams, a leading blockchain influencer, notes, It is vital that we understand the provenance of these data and be able to trace back how it has been used.Blockchain is vital in this respect.We much know not only what we know but how reliable that data is.Tools like the Hedera Hashgraph DLT can be vital in providing this information.

Avoiding Tradeoffs Of Health Care Privacy To Fight COVID-19

Heather Leigh Flannery, Founder and CEO of ConsensSys Health, also includes blockchain technology in helping to achieve computational trust of public health data. At ConsenSys Health, Covid-19 response is our number one priority. We are working on constellations of tech for the benefit of humanity as this pandemic is continuing.

Heather doesnot believe we need to give up all of our rights to personal privacy when it comes to healthcare data in the rush to fight this pandemic. The current ethos is to give up all our personal privacy. This is problematic in the long term, and we should be prioritizing technology that can help us advance public health while preserving personal privacy. Blockchain alone does not deliver this privacy. However, this technology used in concert with two other families of technology: zero knowledge cryptography and federated analytic and machine learning does.

As U.S. citizens accepts the reality of a major pandemic and the information on coronavirus is at an all-time premium, the idea of whether blockchain technology can engender trust in the information provided on the coronavirus will certainly be put to the test.

Disclosure: Jason Brett has worked at ConsenSys. Additional, he serves as CEO and President of the Value Technology Foundation, where Hedera Hashgraph is a contributor.

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How Blockchain Technology Offers Computational Trust For Tracking The Coronavirus Outbreak - Forbes

Blockchain Game Alliance Elects The Sandbox COO, Sbastien Borget, as President and Announces Ubisoft, AMD, Animoca Brands, and MakerDAO as 2020…

GENEVA, Switzerland March 26, 2020 Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA), a coalition of game and blockchain companies advocating for blockchain technology within the game industry, today announced the election of Sbastien Borget, blockchain evangelist and co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, as President following his appointment to the Board. The organization further announced that Ubisoft, AMD, Animoca Brands and MakerDAO have returned as 2020 sponsors, which will further BGAs goals to represent blockchain gaming at major game industry events.

Founded in 2019, Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) is an organization committed to the adoption of blockchain technologies in gaming by promoting the creation of common standards, facilitating networking and knowledge-sharing and encouraging cooperation and the implementation of best practices. Over 90 companies are members of the alliance.

Newly announced BGA President and board member, Sbastien Borget, is the co-founder and COO of The Sandbox decentralized virtual world gaming platform. The Sandbox is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, an innovative gaming and blockchain company based in Hong Kong that is ranked fifth on BlockchainGamer.bizs list of Top 50 blockchain companies 2020. A passionate advocate for blockchain technology, gaming, and education, Borget is an active speaker and evangelist for the benefits that Non-Fungible Tokens bring to gaming. In his role on the BGA board, he will use his experience as a serial entrepreneur with 10 years in the gaming business to evangelize and contribute to the industry adoption of blockchain technology in ways that expand player possibilities without introducing barriers to play.

Sbastien Borget has been an active community member in the blockchain game space for years, and we're delighted to elect him as the new President of the Blockchain Game Alliance, said Manon Burgel, outgoing President of Blockchain Game Alliance. The BGA seeks to foster collaboration opportunities and encourage blockchain adoption in video games. In 2020 were looking to represent blockchain game companies at traditional video game industry events and the support weve received from industry luminaries like Ubisoft, AMD, and MakerDAO strongly facilitates that goal.

Im a strong believer in aligning the interests of players, creators, and game developers and will continue to encourage true ownership for game players and creators through the inclusion of the blockchain industry, said Sbastien Borget, BGA President and co-founder of The Sandbox. Im honored to lead Blockchain Game Alliance and my goal is to make BGAs effective advocacy even stronger as blockchain gaming moves forward, leveraging my track record, network and influence in the industry to increase its reach globally.

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Board Members from the Blockchain Game Alliance:

Sebastien Borget (The Sandbox/Animoca Brands), Marc Coupal (Enjin), Shaban Shaame (Everdreamsoft), Ludovic Courcelas (Consensys), Manon Burgel (B2Expand), Nicolas Gilot (Ultra), Alex Amsel (Valerian Capital) and Nicolas Pouard (Ubisoft)

For more information about BGA and its ongoing activities, visit blockchaingamealliance.org and follow BGA on Twitter at @BGameAlliance and on Medium.

About Blockchain Game Alliance

The Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) is a coalition of over 90 game and blockchain companies committed to advocating for blockchain technology within the game industry. Our goal is to spread awareness about blockchain technologies and encourage adoption by highlighting their potential to foster new ways to create, publish, play, and build strong communities around games. The BGA also provides an open forum for individuals and companies to share knowledge and collaborate, create common standards, establish best practices, and network. For more information, please visit blockchaingamealliance.org and follow on Twitter.

About Ubisoft

Ubisoft is a leading creator, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services, with a rich portfolio of world-renowned brands, including Assassins Creed, Just Dance, Tom Clancys video game series, Rayman, Far Cry and Watch Dogs. The teams throughout Ubisofts worldwide network of studios and business offices are committed to delivering original and memorable gaming experiences across all popular platforms, including consoles, mobile phones, tablets and PCs. For the 2018-19 fiscal year Ubisoft generated Net Bookings of 2,029 million. To learn more, please visit http://www.ubisoft.com.

About AMD

Blockchain algorithms require compute platforms, PCs and servers more specifically CPUs and GPUs to run on. AMD is in a unique position to offer the best combination of CPU and GPU technologies to make blockchain transactions increasingly faster and more secure. We are working with existing ecosystem partners to bring blockchain compute solutions to market for a large variety of use cases and exploring opportunities with new and innovative platforms using blockchain. http://www.amd.com/en/technologies/blockchain.

About MakerDAO

Maker is a decentralized organization dedicated to bringing financial stability and transparency to the world economy. Maker enables the generation of Dai, the worlds first unbiased currency and leading decentralized stablecoin. MakerDAO.com.

About Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands (ASX: AB1) leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products including games such as The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes as well as products based on popular intellectual properties such as Formula 1, Garfield, Snoopy, Thomas & Friends, Ever After High and Doraemon. Animoca Brands portfolio of blockchain investments and partnerships includes Lucid Sight, Dapper Labs (creators of CryptoKitties), WAX, Harmony, and Decentraland. The Company is based in Hong Kong, Canada, Finland, and Argentina. For more information visit http://www.animocabrands.com or get updates by following Animoca Brands on Facebook or Twitter.

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Blockchain Game Alliance Elects The Sandbox COO, Sbastien Borget, as President and Announces Ubisoft, AMD, Animoca Brands, and MakerDAO as 2020...

Chinas 2nd-Largest Courier Using Blockchain to Deliver Key Supplies Amid Pandemic – Cointelegraph

SF Express, the second-largest courier services provider in China, is exploring the use of blockchain to transport critical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 30, the Global Times an English-language newspaper within the CPC-owned Peoples Daily Group reported that the Shenzhen-based firm is finding the technology to be beneficial for tracking the provenance and checking the quality of medical goods.

While the extent and status of SF Express implementation of blockchain is not detailed, it has reportedly already begun to establish the use of blockchain, specifically for the transportation of medicines and foods, both of which necessitate high standards and reliability.

The report situates blockchain as one of the key emerging technologies alongside big data and artificial intelligence that are helping frontline medical workers and aid suppliers to provide relief efforts during the pandemic.

SF Express is said to be combining blockchain with big data to construct a logistics network that supports the tracking, verification and accurate recording of goods. The system will reportedly be able to identify supply priority levels as well as mitigate the risks of counterfeit or unlicensed products being distributed to regions.

Big-name Chinese technology firms such as Alibaba Group and Huawei are reportedly focusing their energies on providing artificial intelligence solutions that can enhance diagnostic solutions for the public health crisis.

As reported, academic researchers have previously argued that the widespread use of blockchain and AI technology by the likes of Alibaba, SF Express and Apple should be replicated by charitable organizations and government-led public health initiatives.

Castigating Beijings choice to funnel all public donations through five government-backed charity organizations, academic Syren Johnstone said that less centralized blockchain systems would provide more public visibility, accountability and reliability than current approaches to the crisis.

At a regional level, however, as many as 20 new blockchain-based applications designed to help fight the outbreak had reportedly been launched in China by mid-February, several in collaboration with provincial authorities.

This weekend, the World Health Organization partnered with major blockchain and tech companies to launch a distributed ledger technology-based platform for sharing data connected with the pandemic.

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Chinas 2nd-Largest Courier Using Blockchain to Deliver Key Supplies Amid Pandemic - Cointelegraph

Algorand Launches a Blockchain App to Thwart the Coronavirus – The Merkle Hash

It would appear that many people see merit in blockchain technology to fight the coronavirus crisis on a global scale. Algorand is the latest project to throw its hat into the ring, as its new blockchain app launched earlier this week.

Algorand is a relatively established project in the blockchain space.

Albeit it never generates many headlines, the latest effort is worth paying attention to.

The Singaporean company is launching a new application called IReport-Covid.

As the name suggests, it is designed to help those in need during the coronavirus crisis.

Its main order of focus is to prevent the virus from spreading further.

In the application, users are asked to fill in a survey which will be recorded on the Algorand blockchain.

As the global coronavirus toll keeps rising, efforts like these are direly needed first and foremost.

Over 600,000 confirmed cases have now been recorded all over the world.

IReport-Covid is designed to cater to both symptomatic and non-symptomatic users alike.

Once there are ample reports, the aggregated statistics will be made publicly available.

This information can then be used by the proper instances to determine how the domestic situation has evolved.

Putting an end to this global pandemic will require ample work, but it remains to be seen how things will evolve exactly.

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Algorand Launches a Blockchain App to Thwart the Coronavirus - The Merkle Hash

Blockchain in the Current Monetary System – ICO Examiner News

Researchers from the Frankfurt School Blockchain Centre have published their views on a number of ways blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) could be beneficially integrated into the current financial system and the competition existing fiat currency providers will face from the private sector.

The report provides insights into the existing non-DLT fiat system, the advantages DLT can offer, the role of cryptocurrencies and fiat-backed stablecoins, as well as central bank digital currencies (CBDC).

Interest in DLT by European financial and governmental institutions has been expressed on multiple occasions this year. The European CommissionsFinal Report on Study on Blockchains (Legal, governance and interoperability aspects) recently came into print and the European Central Bank (ECB) published a working paper in January looking at Tiered CBDC and the Financial System.

Shortly after taking office, ECB President Christine Lagarde voiced her intent to accelerate research into a European CBDC and provide answers to the questions surrounding what it would mean for the individual participating nations and the technical challenges involved.

The Frankfurt School Blockchain Centre suggest a convenient way for central banks to trial a CBDC is to introduce the concept on a wholesale, rather than retail, basis. Such a scheme would only involve central and commercial banks and possibly other financial institutions, excluding access to all members of the public and most corporations.

It is reasoned that while a CBDC could counteract private crypto assets such as Bitcoin only if central banks used DLT in the retail market its use in the wholesale environment could bring to an end to the current tiered-banking system, in which smaller banks must hold accounts at bigger banks which then hold accounts at the central banks.

Such a move, according to the authors, would provide higher efficiency, resilience, competition and less credit risk in the payment sector since all participants could settle their transactions and hold customer deposits in risk-free central bank money.

Although a risk-free fiat currency is a misnomer to most of those active in the independent blockchain community, the Frankfurt School Blockchain Centre assert that now is time for central banks to participate in the process of innovating and digitising the money and payment system.

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Blockchain in the Current Monetary System - ICO Examiner News

Three new ways of doing business enabled by blockchain – Information Age

Steve Bryen, senior technology evangelist at Amazon Web Services, identifies new ways in which blockchain is enabling business

How can blockchain be used in various industries?

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that helps to simplify transactions and conduct efficient, secure interactions with multiple independent parties around the globe, all without the need for a third-party intermediary. These transactions can vary within business, from sending anything from farm data, to banking and contract transactions.

As the world becomes more interconnected, opportunities for companies and individuals to interact and transact across borders, time zones, and channels grow quickly. To make sure that these transactions run smoothly, proactive management specifically to ensure the minimisation of cost, lowering of risk, and the elimination of inefficiencies is needed.

Blockchain technology works by establishing a peer-to-peer network where each participant maintains a database a ledger of all the networks transactions. Compiled into blocks, transactions are then linked together using cryptographic hashes, forming a chain. The cryptographically connected blocks create an underlying data layer that provides a common, unified view of information for parties who can access the data. This gives organisations a new way of establishing trusted business networks.

Mention blockchain to CTOs and technology leaders, and their reply will probably include epithets such as has potential, experimental platform, and the dreaded, still in its infancy. To paraphrase Star Wars Jedi master Yoda, Shrouded in mist are the business benefits of blockchain technology. Atlas City CEO and co-founder Darren Oliveiro-Priestnall demystifies the technology and spotlights some business benefits. Read here

Today, building a scalable blockchain network with existing technologies is complex to set up and hard to manage. To create a blockchain network, each network member needs to manually provision hardware, install software, create and manage certificates for access control, and configure networking components. Once the blockchain network is running, you need to continuously monitor the infrastructure and adapt to changes, such as an increase in transaction requests, or new members joining or leaving the network.

Blockchain technology use cases, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) are addressing customer pain points and enabling new ways of doing business across a range of industries.

Farmers collect large volumes of data with each step in the planting and harvesting process. Licensed data data that qualifies as intellectual property of the farmer such as which crops to plant or how many seedlings can be anonymised, sold to third parties and offer the agricultural industry with real-time insights on farms across the world. However, farmers are unsure how to monetize this crop data.

Farmobile addresses these challenges through a blockchain-based exchange, built on AWS. The solution empowers farmers to licence data to approved buyers and includes account set up, creation, confirmation, execution of the offer, and delivery of the digital asset. They can seamlessly sell single-use licenses while keeping their farms identity completely anonymous. However, farmers have full visibility into the identities of potential data buyers, such as agronomists, equipment producers, and retailers, and are free to decline offers.

Farmobile is working towards global expansion so that it can assist more farmers in making crop data a more valuable commodity. Farmobile sees building its blockchain-based exchange on AWS as crucial to its growth potential, enabling the business to scale fast while ensuring high security and compliance standards.

Another case study for blockchain technology in business is the financial sector in the Philippines. Here, rural banks lack the resources of larger banking institutions, making it nearly impossible for them to thrive or survive. This has left a large majority of rural-based Filipinos with little or no banking access.

How CIOs and CTOs can succeed in todays evolving financial landscape and support and meet the demands of both the organisation and customers. Read here

UnionBank, a pioneer in its use of blockchain technology, joined forces with ConsenSys, an AWS Partner, to build a blockchain solution that would resolve this issue. The new, blockchain-based solution created a decentralised, cost-efficient, and near real-time network, allowing for the execution of domestic payments without relying on existing banking infrastructure and intermediaries. Furthermore, by using Kaleido a ConsenSys business built for enterprise blockchain technologies on AWS, UnionBank saved money, time and effort required to build a blockchain solution from scratch, all the while ensuring that AWS provided baked-in security at an infrastructure level.

The blockchain solution introduced means that rural banks no longer have to shoulder the burden of manually processing back-office transactions, freeing up staff to serve more customers. As such, the technology not only increased banking access and inclusivity, but drove sustainable future banking practices.

Another example comes from the oil and gas industry. Moving resources through the oil and gas supply chain involves many stakeholders, including landowners, governments, oil and gas company operators, surveyors, and financial institutions. One critical step occurs between those mining the oil and royalty owners on whose land the oil is mined. Checking royalty transaction payments is a lengthy, manual process where stakeholders must agree to contract terms upfront. However, those terms are often interpreted differently on either side, often leading to disputes.

Many industries have exploited the exciting opportunities to improve operations via digital transformation, but the oil and gas sector has lagged behind. Ron Beck, Energy Industry Director, AspenTech, explains why its time for digitisation in this heavy, asset-intensive industry. Read here

GuildOne believed companies needed more efficient, secure, and cost-effective ways to execute a royalty contract transactions. They developed a solution through which contract terms are capable of being replicated, and consensus agreed using blockchain technology. By doing so, they mitigated the possibility of disputes and eliminated a large chunk of the expense of contract administration.

To build its royalty ledger and to meet the stringent privacy and security needs of its stakeholders, GuildOne chose to use R3s Corda a blockchain platform built for business and longevity on AWS. Believing that the security capabilities gained would be vital in enabling rapid adoption of the royalty ledger solution in the oil and gas industry.

Blockchain solutions are transforming the ways companies and individuals do business, locally and globally, by simplifying transactions and increasing their efficiency. Those looking to take advantage of the technology should partner with cloud providers capable of scaling up while delivering cyber security controls and standards to protect from external attacks.

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Three new ways of doing business enabled by blockchain - Information Age

CasperLabs Pivots Away From Ethereum to Fundraise With Its Own Blockchain – CoinDesk

Some crypto startups, including Solana and Dapper Labs, are eager to execute fundraising plans regardless of any coronavirus-induced downturn.

Likewise, CasperLabs, the startup formerly advised by Ethereum Foundation researcher Vlad Zamfir, is now partnering with the Singapore-registered exchange BitMax to conduct its token sale in the form of an Exchange Validator Offering (EVO).

Its a really attractive opportunity to participate with the same terms that are usually only available to institutional investors, said CasperLabs COO Clifford Sarkin.

This fundraising effort comes after the startup raised $14.5 million in 2019 from investors like Arrington XRP Capital and Terren Scott Peizer, who the New York Times dubbed Wall Streets jack-of-all-trades. It originally focused on Casper protocol experiments.

Since then, CEO Mrinal Manohar said the startup switched to developing a new blockchain inspired by Ethereums proof-of-stake plans for participants to deposit their tokens as a way to fuel the network. Manohars team of 26 developers and researchers, out of a total staff of 34, plan to launch the new blockchains mainnet before 2021. Investor Michael Arrington said hes not sure whether his firm will participate in the upcoming token sale before CasperLabs mainnet launch.

We will very likely run a node, Arrington said. We havent made a decision yet on further investment.

In the meantime, starting on March 30, a new CasperLabs token (CLX) will be sold to retail investors through BitMax, which predominantly serves traders in China, Vietnam, South Korea, Russia and India.

The exchange will automatically stake CLX for buyers when the mainnet launches later this year, after which there will be an enforced 90-day lock up to prevent prompt sell-offs.

The target audience is for a more sophisticated demographic, since this token wont be liquid at launch, said Shane Molidor, head of business development at BitMax.

BitMax is especially popular with crypto traders in Japan and China, where token sales to non-accredited investors may not attract enforcement from securities regulators, as they do in the U.S. But BitMax and CasperLabs are officially registered in Singapore and Switzerland, respectively. And American retail investors will be barred from the sale, Manohar said.

Molidor added that, across the board, his exchange saw more than a 272 percent surge in trading volume this month, compared to February. The coronavirus crisis may turn out to be a boon for exchanges.

As such, BitMax is committed to operating a full node at CasperLabs mainnet launch to facilitate staking services for CLX and selling up to $3 million worth of tokens, as evaluated by both participating companies.

On a relative valuation basis, were allowing people to come in at the ground floor, Manohar said. It performs exactly like ether will perform when Ethereum becomes a primarily proof-of-stake chain.

CasperLabs, one of many prospective smart-contract-based Ethereum competitors, is betting its security setup on the hope that the network will quickly decentralize.

Manohar said the team is in talks with several other exchanges and companies that offer staking services. But, as it stands, so far just a few people are committed to staking or running nodes, which could invalidate the security model if it isnt eventually resolved. Series A investor Omer Ozden of Rocktree Capital said his firm plans to participate in a private token sale and rely on staking services to utilize the tokens.

We also have a wide ecosystem of partners, clients and projects we have invested in, Ozden said. In China particularly, blockchain is being rapidly adopted by large and medium-sized enterprises because of the government's top-down directive.

From Ozdens perspective, he said he wants to see this project as part of the emergence of Wall Street 2.0.

Meanwhile, CasperLabs employees will retain roughly 8 percent of the token supply, restricted with a three-year vesting period. Manohar said the total token supply, yet to be launched, will be worth an estimated $100 million.

When asked how to sell such assets to retail investors in coronavirus-stricken jurisdictions, he replied terms reflect several things to protect risk, such as the prospect of built-in yields once the network launches.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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CasperLabs Pivots Away From Ethereum to Fundraise With Its Own Blockchain - CoinDesk

Santander and Ripple Launching Blockchain-Powered Payment Service in Mexico – The Daily Hodl

Santander, the 16th largest bank in the world with $1.74 trillion assets under management, is planning to launch its Ripple-powered payments app One Pay FX in Mexico this year.

The blockchain-based international payment solution, which went live in 2018, has already added six countries: Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Poland, Portugal and Chile.

According to a filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Santanders multi-corridor international blockchain app aims to offer customers increased transparency and predictability, and improve the current sub-optimal customer experience and client stickiness through a best-in-class global payment system.

Traditional borderless payments can take up to five days to process. One Pay FX says its users can expect their payments to arrive on the same day while benefiting from competitive rates.

The app also provides a seamless digital experience with several details about each transaction including bank fees, exchange rates, estimated delivery time and a notification that the money has been received.

One Pay FX uses Ripples payment messaging system, as opposed to Ripples native token XRP, to move money between currencies. The tech product, which is a competitor to the international financial network Swift, helps banks settle fiat-to-fiat transactions in real time by using messaging to clarify and verify transaction details.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Yurchanka Siarhei

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Santander and Ripple Launching Blockchain-Powered Payment Service in Mexico - The Daily Hodl

Animoca Brands partners with Atari to create blockchain-based virtual theme park – Proactive Investors Australia

Under the terms of the agreement, Atari will receive large digital spaces, known as ESTATEs, in The Sandbox gaming metaverse.

Animoca Brands Corporation Limiteds blockchain gaming platform The Sandbox is partnering with Atari, one of the worlds most iconic gaming brands, to create 3D voxel versions of beloved Atari game properties including Asteroids, Centipede, Pong and RollerCoaster Tycoon.

The Sandbox is a virtual world where players can build, own and monetise their own voxel gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain.

The teams vision is to offer a deeply immersive metaverse in which virtual worlds and games will be created collaboratively and without central authority.

Under the terms of the agreement, Atari will receive large digital spaces, known as ESTATEs, in The Sandbox gaming metaverse.

On these ESTATEs, 3D voxelized versions of Ataris classic and most popular gaming creations will be made available to players when The Sandbox publicly launches later this year.

Furthermore, Atari and The Sandbox will develop Atari-inspired in-game ASSETs for game creators to use in their own games.

The Sandbox chief operating officer and co-founder Sebastien Borget said: Atari is rightly celebrated as a pioneer in the world of gaming, and this partnership continues the brands innovation by bringing its treasured gaming heritage into the decentralized, blockchain-based metaverse of The Sandbox.

Together, we are making history by creating the first virtual Atari theme park on blockchain, and it will be really fun for our players to play, explore, and create inside Atari-inspired virtual worlds.

Atari chief executive officer Frdric Chesnais said: Given that Ataris iconic brands introduced so many people to their very first interactive entertainment, it only makes sense for us to be part of the imaginative experience that is The Sandbox.

This exciting collaboration with The Sandbox also expands and deepens Ataris strategic involvement in Blockchain-powered and cryptocurrency-fueled entertainment.

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Animoca Brands partners with Atari to create blockchain-based virtual theme park - Proactive Investors Australia

As Science And Business Go To War With Each Other, President Trump Pours Fuel On The Fire – Forbes

By Abram Brown with Chris Helman

In his corner of the Texas oil patch, Bud Brigham has kept things going as much as he can in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Most of the employees at Brigham Minerals, which he founded and currently chairs, are working from home. Brigham is also the chairman of Atlas Sand, whose plants are still going full throttle, he says, processing the sand that gets sold to frackers.

As the name of that company hints, Brigham is a libertarian, and he once financed a movie trilogy of Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged. I do wonder, are we overreacting? he says, doing his best Dagny Taggart imitation. Is the cure worse than the ailment?

That sentiment has spread widely in the last 48 hours. Tweets and email chains, many penned by desperate small-business owners, found their way to the Fox News punditry set. Just as the spread of coronavirus creates a curve of the number of people infected, this economic shutdown is creating a curve of the number of people affectedlosing their jobs, their homes, their businesses, Fox host Steve Hilton said Sunday night, asking viewers if they were familiar with that famous phrase: The cure is worse than the disease. It was then only a matter of time before the Tweeter-in-Chief weighed in. WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM, President Trump, caps lock emphatically on, wrote shortly before midnight Sunday. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO. He doubled down yesterday morning, retweeting those who agreed with himand finished by retweeting his own late-night tweet.

By yesterday, Trumps notion had become a mainstream talking point, as prominent observers including Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Fox News Laura Ingraham and Brit Hume and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis all insisted that an economic crash will kill more people than the virus, and we should therefore let those who are purportedly less at riskthe young and middle-agedgo back to producing and consuming.

All of which has scientists, doctors and other health-care professionals aghast. Their consensus: Stay home and dont go within six feet of anyone. We have to hunker down, says Vincent Racaniello, who teaches microbiology and immunology at Columbia University. He doesnt think its safe to resume normal life until the country reports no more than 10 new cases in a day. (The U.S. is currently reporting thousands per day.) Look at all the people dying in huge numbers on a daily basis in Italy, he adds. We need to prevent that. When Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments leading expert on infectious diseases, didnt appear at yesterdays circus-like press briefing, Trump was asked if Fauci agreed with him on the need to ease social distancing to speed the reopening of the economy. No, he doesnt not agree, the president responded, his use of a double negative only muddying the waters further.

Does this standoff represent yet another culture war, this one with hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars on the line? This is probably unprecedented, says Greg Wawro, chair of Columbias political science department. It is bleak. Its bleak.

Both sides come armed with statistics. The science-first side argues in terms of sickness and mortality, citing a worst-case scenario that projects 160 million to 214 million Americans infected with COVID-19 and a death toll of 200,000 to 1.7 million. These models factor in the past few weeks in Europemodels that in fact seem optimistic given the pathetic state of testing in the U.S. so far, as well as government mandates far less draconian, even in New York and California, than in Italy and Spain.

The business-first side, meanwhile, cites lost dollars. On the positive end of things, Bank of America thinks the economy will slide 12% in the second quarter; Deutsche Bank predicts 12.9%. This would represent collapse, BofA economists wrote in a recent research report. Goldman Sachs forecasts a 24% drop. Global recession in 2020 is now our base case, Morgan Stanleys chief economist, Chetan Ahya, concluded in a recent report. Those estimates would likely translate to between 5 million and 8 million vaporized jobs. One Federal Reserve official, Mercer Bullard, said yesterday that unemployment could reach 30%, the highest in American history. (During the Great Depression, joblessness peaked at 24.9% in 1933.) These numbers feel like an almost self-inflicted wound given that just four weeks ago, the economy seemed headed to another year of healthy growth amid the longest expansion in American history.

I would love to see life going back to normal, says Luciana Borio, a physician who served on Trumps National Security Council. However, I do not think thats going to be by the end of this week.

To the science side, economic speculation is irrelevant. The most important thing here is to save peoples lives, and there is no value you can put on a persons life, right? says Columbias Racaniello. Especially if its someone who means something to you. Recognizing the potency of this argument, the business-first types have cobbled together dubious estimates of the lives taken by recession and poverty.

Theyre also trying to compare potential coronavirus deaths to those from heart disease (650,000 deaths annually), cancer (600,000) or automobile crashes (1.3 million), knowing that no one would advocate shutting the economy to stop such losses. Negative effects on the economy create lots of misery for people, says Harvard professor Jeffrey Miron, a former fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. Adds David Friedman, a retired Santa Clara University professor and son of free-market apostle Milton Friedman: The government shutting down the economy or freezing the economy or printing $2 trillion to give to people doesnt make a whole lot of sense.

But the winning argument, on economic terms, belongs to the scientists. The idea that economy versus lives is a zero-sum game is false. The most vexing potential problem with COVID-19 isnt the death rate. Its the risk of a surge that collapses the U.S. health-care system, with most cities already preparing for triage and carnage on a scale never seen in peacetime America. That alone would cripple both the biggest player in the American economy and undermine whatever consumer and corporate confidence could be imbued with a business-as-usual attitude. Its why even President Trump was imploring everyone to flatten the curveat least until this weekend.

I would love to see life going back to normal, says Luciana Borio, a physician and the former chief scientist at the FDA, who served on Trumps National Security Council, planning for worst-case scenarios like these until she left when the president dismantled the groups team of health experts. I think we should try to do everything we can to bring it back to normal as soon as is feasible and responsible to do so. We shouldnt sit and wait a second longer than its needed. However, I do not think thats going to be by the end of this week.

Or next Monday. March 30 looms large, as Trump began urging distancing on March 15, for a suggested 15 days. Despite all the friendly PSAs, though, only a handful of states have imposed the kind of stay-at-home mandates that could actually stem this scourge. Most of the country is still congregating, which means most of the country will start getting sick only on or around March 30when the death counts in places like New York, judging by the experience of Europe, will start to become staggering.

Its all a false dichotomy. Business and science arent zero-sum, the same way that solving climate change should be viewed as an extraordinary investment opportunity rather than a cost. Great science blossoms under entrepreneurial capitalism. Great business is based on reason and data.

Data, or lack thereof, is the biggest culprit behind this catastrophe. Americas inability to amass enough test kitsmuch less masks and ventilators to protect health-care workersmeans were flying blind. Thats the biggest difference between the United States and a coronavirus role model like South Korea, which opened 600 testing centers and is now producing 100,000 testing kits per day.

It might be reasonable to gambleand try to restart thingsif you actually understand [the scope of the problem], says Borio. We dont.

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As Science And Business Go To War With Each Other, President Trump Pours Fuel On The Fire - Forbes

ER Doctor: US Bungling COVID Response Like Soviets Did Chernobyl

Emergency physician Joshua Lerner says that America's response to the coronavirus pandemic is so bad it reminds him of the Chernobyl disaster.

For emergency physician Joshua Lerner, the American government and healthcare industry’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is so inadequate and fragmentary that he likens it to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union.

In both crises, Lerner writes in a Scientific American op-ed, people on the front lines worked tirelessly to save others’ lives despite being equipped with makeshift, insufficient protective gear. Back then it was scrap metal meant to shield against deadly radiation. Now it’s home-sewn masks and reused hospital gowns being used to treat patients sick with a dangerous virus.

“Please don’t tell me that in the richest country in the world in the 21st century, I’m supposed to work in a fictionalized Soviet-era disaster zone and fashion my own face mask out of cloth while others in our country hoard supplies for personal use and profiteering as so-called leaders sit around in meetings hearing themselves talk,” Lerner writes.

It’s embarrassing, Lerner argues, that America’s massive corporations haven’t mobilized against the pandemic.

Companies like 3M, he writes, should have already stopped everything to churn out medical supplies like masks and gowns at a massive scale. Amazon should be lending its massive logistics network to quickly distribute tests and medical supplies to hospitals across the country.

“I don’t want talk. I don’t want assurances. I want action,” Lerner writes. “I want boxes of N95 masks piling up in hospitals, donated from the people who hoarded them or from stockpiles of less critical use.”

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ER Doctor: US Bungling COVID Response Like Soviets Did Chernobyl

Vacuum Maker Dyson Designed a New Ventilator in Just 10 Days

British technology maker Dyson has announced it has designed a new ventilator called the

Vacuums to Ventilators

British company Dyson — best known for its sleek vacuum cleaners — has announced it has designed a new ventilator called the “CoVent” in just ten days, according to CNN, to help the UK treat coronavirus patients.

The company is planning to produce 15,000 ventilators to help fight the pandemic, 5,000 of which will be donated to other countries.

“A ventilator supports a patient who is no longer able to maintain their own airways, but sadly there is currently a significant shortage, both in the UK and other countries around the world,” company founder James Dyson wrote in an open letter, as quoted by CNN.

Race to Production

Just ten days ago, Dyson received a call from UK prime minster Boris Johnson, asking the company to help the country’s National Health Service by supplying ventilators.

The newly designed CoVent ventilator is a portable battery-powered ventilator that can be mounted to the side of a hospital bed.

Ten Days

Ten days is an extremely short turnaround time to design something so complex.

“The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time,” Dyson added. “The race is now on to get it into production.”

The news comes after tech magnate Elon Musk announced late last night via Twitter that he’s planning to reopen Tesla’s Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York to also start manufacturing ventilators.

READ MORE: James Dyson designed a new ventilator in 10 days. He’s making 15,000 for the pandemic fight [CNN]

More on ventilators: Elon Musk: NY Gigafactory Will Reopen to Produce Ventilators

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Vacuum Maker Dyson Designed a New Ventilator in Just 10 Days

It Isn’t Just You: The Internet Is Actually Super-Slow Lately

According to a new report by Broadband Now, many cities in the US are experiencing internet slowdowns during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Streaming Slowdowns

According to a new report by Broadband Now, a consumer advocate website that compares U.S. internet service providers (ISPs), many cities are experiencing internet slowdowns during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Out of the country’s 200 most populous cities, 88 “have experienced some degree of network degradation over the past week compared to the 10 weeks prior,” according to the report. Three cities “experienced significant degradations, falling out of their ten-week range by more than 40 percent.” Most cities, however, didn’t find their speeds deviate by more than 20 percent.

New York City, one of the hardest hit US cities by the coronavirus, experienced slowdowns of up to 24 percent last week.

In many of the hardest hit areas, though, increased demand from households streaming “The Office” for the 14th time while self-isolating hasn’t affected speeds at all. “Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Brooklyn, and San Francisco have all experienced little or no disruption,” reads the report.

Speed Bump

Broadband testing service Ookla also found that median download speeds dropped an average 4.9 percent compared to last week.

According to the Speedtest Global Index by the same company, the US is number eight in terms of fixed broadband speeds, with Singapore, Hong Kong and Monaco taking up the top three spots. But not everybody has access. According to a 2019 Pew Research report, 33 million people in the US are still living without internet.

To cope with the onslaught of streamers, YouTube announced it will default to standard, rather than high, definition for users worldwide. Facebook and Netflix have also decided to cut the overall quality of their streams while the pandemic continues, for the same reason.

READ MORE: 88 out of top 200 US cities have seen internet speeds decline this past week, 3 cities by more than 40% [TechCrunch]

More on the virus: Vacuum Maker Dyson Designed a New Ventilator in Just 10 Days

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It Isn’t Just You: The Internet Is Actually Super-Slow Lately