Why Is The Next Generation Of My Hero Academia So Strong? – Comicbook.com

The My Hero Academia anime has gotten into something of a filler stretch following the Overhaul arc, and the latest episode saw Shoto Todoroki, Bakugo and the Shiketsu High students stuck with them, trying to calm an entire class of young kids with powerful quirks, who wanted nothing more than to put the older class of students in their place. During the back-and-forth struggle between generations of quirk users, the teachers observing the exercise break down one the big problem staring them all in the face, and what a dark portent it is for the future.

So: Why is the next generation of My Hero Academia's quirk users so strong? It all goes back to the doomsday theory of "Quirk Singularity."

In the world of My Hero Academia the majority of society are born with "quirks," i.e. a unique superpower. In a whole society of superpowered individuals, the usual process of coupling and mating and producing children results in two quirks mixing together to form a more powerful quirk in their offspring. As that new generation of more powerful quirks eventually reaches maturity and breeds, the subsequent generation is born with even more powerful sets of quirks. The cycle goes on and on until the evolutionary process reaches what is known as the "Quirk Singularity" theory.

"Quirk Singularity" posits that after enough generations of increasingly powerful quirks, we'll reach a generation whose quirks are so powerful that they cannot be controlled by the users. The theory was presented by Dr. Ujiko, who observed the red flags of quirk singularity in the fourth generation of quirk users. At the time, no one believed Ujiko except for One For All, who took the doctor under his wing. However, as the generations continue to show increased quirk power, even the Pro Hero world is starting to take notice.

This "Quirk Singularity" theory has major implications for the future of My Hero Academia, as the new generation of quirk users clearly has much more power than discipline and control. That's a trait that lends itself more toward the villain side of the fence than the lives of Pro Heroes, meaning the future that All For One wants is more likely to come to pass, than not.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes.

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Why Is The Next Generation Of My Hero Academia So Strong? - Comicbook.com

He made a dating app where he’s the only guy allowed. He got a girlfriend! – WFMYNews2.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. In the hunt for love, theres so much competition. Thats why a Greensboro guy built a dating app where hes the only man allowed. Guess what?! He got a girlfriend. And they seem like a really good match.

It was 90 percent a joke and 10 percent a Hail Mary," said Aaron Smith.

A Hail Mary to one day hopefully getting married. Aaron created the app Singularity where hes the only single man allowed on it. His best friend and computer programmer helped him build the app. Then the two created a Youtube commercial to get the word out. That's when WFMY News 2 picked up the story back in November.

RELATED: Greensboro Man Creates Dating App Where He's The Only Guy Allowed

Since we were the first to tell you about the app, coverage has exploded.

I saw articles about it in Polish and Mandarin. Newsweek, People's website. There was a Youtube outlet that made a 3-D animation of me," Aaron said. "The response has been pretty crazy, but I kinda expected it because people are looking for a chuckle when everything is so doom and gloom nowadays."

Hes gotten about 100 Facebook friend requests.

And messages from a lot of guys wanting me to build them an app," Aaron said.

Mixed in with all of that was an e-mail from Abi.

Who is your future wife, you ask? Lucky for you, Im an eccentric, socially anxious cat lady," she wrote.

Abi lives in Eugene, Oregon. That's 2,800 miles away from Aaron. The two video chat pretty much every day. She says his idea for a one-man dating app made her smile.

People have to be creative. Online dating does suck," Abi said. "It was like something I would do. Also, he has good eyebrows. Very expressive.

Behold said eyebrows:

Abi says Aaron's eyebrows are a big reason why she contacted him.

WFMY

After a few weeks of getting to know each other, Aaron booked a flight to Oregon.

Whats the worst that could happen? Murder?" Aaron wondered.

Abi made this sign to pick Aaron up at the airport.

WFMY

Abi met him at the airport with a sign reading: The Aaron Smith of my dreams

She promptly shook my hand and then said fun fact, were holding hands. I thought that was adorable," Aaron said.

WATCH THEIR DATE IN THE MAIN VIDEO AT THE TOP OF THIS STORY!

The two picnic in the rain.

Aaron Smith

The two went on a picnic, but it rained, so they ate in the car. They tried Zumba for the first time, and talked about the important stuff.

Where do you like to put the thermostat at?" Aaron asked on their date.

"Off. Its cheaper. I just do jumping jacks to stay warm," Abi answered.

We had a lot of fun. Neither one of us robbed each other," Abi said.

"No one died," Aaron added.

All pluses.

It might have changed the trajectory of my life (shoulder shrug). So I mean thats pretty cool, Aaron said.

The date must have struck a chord with Abi too. She wrote him a song.

"The first time I saw your eyebrows on your face, I knew you were the one," her lyrics said. "And if your eyebrows ever get burnt off in a horrible accident then were through. But until then, Im with you.

An old-fashioned love story set to a modern tune.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We asked whats next for the couple, Abi says there are going to have a destination wedding in Kansas halfway between their two homes. It was a joke, or at least we think it was. Kinda hard to tell with these two, which makes them such a great pair.

Make sure not to miss any more updates on this story by liking @WATCHDOGBEN on Facebook

Ben Briscoe. 2,921 likes 237 talking about this. Weekend anchor/investigative reporter in North Carolina for WFMY News 2. Murrow winner and always on the hunt for a story which could make a difference.

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He made a dating app where he's the only guy allowed. He got a girlfriend! - WFMYNews2.com

Flying Cars? Future Is Faster Survey Finds Many Americans Doubt They Will Live To See The Sky Replace Highways Despite Rapid Technological…

New Survey asks Participants to Guess When Big Changes will Become Part of their Everyday Lives

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- When will we be able to hail an autonomous robo-taxigrow great-tasting steak from stem cells in a labconnect the human brain to the cloud so you can Google just by thinking?

Significant numbers of Americans are less than optimistic that these capabilities will be possible anytime soon or even in their lifetimes, even though some of these technologies are already available in limited capacities. Authors of the new book, The Future is Faster Than You Think. Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler conducted a survey to determine whether Americans are ready for the technological shifts that are rapidly progressing and, in some cases, already here.

Among the findings:

These views contradict the realitywhich is one of the key takeaways in The Future is Faster Than You Think. The book demonstrates how major technological innovations like flying cars and virtual shopping malls will likely become a reality within the next decade, if not sooner.

"Disruption and democratization of technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality will lead to extraordinary growth and transformation," said Diamandis, who is also founder of several innovative businesses and organizations, including XPRIZE Foundation and Singularity University. "These converging technologies will transform every industry and create tremendous opportunity for those who choose to take advantage of it."

For the 10-question survey, the 2,663 total participants were asked to predict when a certain milestone would take placedrones will deliver a McDonald's meal to your home; the average healthy lifespan will increase from mid-70s (today) to 100+ years old. Participants had the option to pick one of the following answers: now, by 2030, by 2040 or not in my lifetime.

"We want what's in this book to serve as a warning shot to business leaders who like many American adults don't realize how fast technology will transform the world we all inhabit," said Kotler, the book's co-author who is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist and founder and Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. "Business leaders and the rest of us can either learn how to ride the tsunami of change or get crushed by it."

For more information about The Future is Faster Than You Think, contact Terri Kayden at 973-850-7310 or tkayden@jconnelly.com.

About The Future is Faster than You ThinkThe Future is Faster Than You Thinkoffers a blueprint for how our world will change in response to the next 10 years of rapid disruption. Written by New York Times bestselling authors Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, The Future is Faster Than You Think explores how wave after wave of exponentially accelerating technologies will reinvent every part of our livestransportation, retail, advertising, education, health, entertainment, food and financetaking humanity into uncharted territories and reimagining the world as we know it.

About The Future is Faster SurveyA Google survey of U.S.-only users was conducted between Friday, January 17, 2020 through, Monday, January 20, 2020. There were 2,663 total participants who responded to some or all of 10 multiple-choice survey questions in this period. The 10 questions tasked participants to choose whether certain technological advancements would be readily available to them at some point between now and beyond their lifetimes. Participants surveyed were all 18 years of age or older and varied by race/gender.

Contact: Terri Kayden JConnelly973-850-7310tkayden@jconnelly.com

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worthy read Yuval Noah Harari reflects on life and the end of the world – Jewish Insider

In a lengthy profile by New Yorker contributor Ian Parker, historian and Israeli public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari speaks out on his theories, his personal life and his predictions for how the world will come to an end. Harari, the author of Sapiens, an international bestseller covering the entirety of world history, serves as a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Core theory: Harari argues that humanity faces existential threats from nuclear war, ecological collapse and technological disruption. In Sapiens he makes the case that, due to technological and scientific advances, we may be fast approaching a new singularity, when all the concepts that give meaning to our world me, you, men, women, love and hate will become irrelevant and humans may disappear entirely. But Harari stops short of offering concrete proposals to address this, aside from international cooperation and focus.

Famous fans: President Barack Obama has recommended Hararis Sapiens, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has purportedly also read the book. Hararis husband and manager Itzik Yahav told Parker that Sapiens convinced the prime minister to cut back on his consumption of meat.

Connections with the rich and powerful: Harari once attended a dinner party at billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbergs home. The professor and author said he thinks many of the social issues that companies like Facebook cause are bugs, which the companies are trying to correct. Last year, he had a run-in with billionaire investor David Rubenstein at a conference in Ukraine, where Rubenstein gave Harari his business card.

Pessimistic about Mideast peace: Harari sees no motivation among Israelis to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, saying that especially with new surveillance technology the current situation could persist for centuries. He said only a war, a catastrophe a couple of thousand people die, something was likely to break the deadlock.

Read the full profile here.

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worthy read Yuval Noah Harari reflects on life and the end of the world - Jewish Insider

Don’t Believe These 5 Myths About The Big Bang – Forbes

A singularity is where conventional physics breaks down, including if you're talking about the very... [+] beginning of the Universe. However, there are consequences to achieving arbitrarily hot, dense states in the Universe, and many of them fail to hold up to observations.

The Universe we know today, filled with stars and galaxies across the great cosmic abyss, hasn't been around forever. Despite the fact that there are approximately 2 trillion galaxies visible to us spanning distances of tens of billions of light-years, there's a limit to how far away we can look. That isn't because the Universe is finite in fact, it may well be infinite after all but because it had a beginning that occurred a finite amount of time ago: the Big Bang.

The fact that we can look at our Universe today, see it expanding and cooling, and infer our cosmic origins is one of the most profound scientific achievements of the 20th century. The Universe began from a hot, dense, matter-and-radiation filled state some 13.8 billion years ago, and has been expanding, cooling, and gravitating ever since. But the Big Bang itself doesn't work the way most people think. Here are the top 5 myths that people believe about the Big Bang.

The first stages of the explosion of the Trinity nuclear test, just 16 milliseconds after... [+] detonation. The top of the fireball is 200 meters high. If it weren't for the presence of the ground, the explosion itself wouldn't be a hemisphere, but rather a near-perfectly symmetric sphere.

1.) The Big Bang is the explosion that began our Universe. Every time we look out at a distant galaxy in the Universe and try to measure what its light is doing, we see the same pattern emerge: the farther away the galaxy is, the more significantly its light is systematically shifted to longer and longer wavelengths. This redshift that we observe for these objects follows a predictable pattern, with double the distance meaning that the light is shifted by twice as much.

Distant objects, therefore, appear to be receding away from us. Just as a police car speeding away from you will sound lower-pitched the faster it moves away from you, the greater we measure an object's distance to be from us, the greater the measured redshift of its light will be. It makes a lot of sense, then, to think that the more distant objects are moving away from us at faster speeds, and that we could trace every galaxy we see today back to a single point in the past: an enormous explosion.

The 'raisin bread' model of the expanding Universe, where relative distances increase as the space... [+] (dough) expands. The farther away any two raisin are from one another, the greater the observed redshift will be by time the light is received. The redshift-distance relation predicted by the expanding Universe is borne out in observations, and has been consistent with what's been known all the way back since the 1920s.

But this is a total misconception about what the Big Bang actually is. It isn't that these galaxies are moving through the Universe itself, but rather that the fabric of space that makes up the Universe itself is expanding. Just as raisins appear to recede in proportion to their distance in a leavening ball of dough, the galaxies appear to recede from one another as the Universe expands. The raisins aren't in motion relative to the dough; the action of the expanding dough itself simply appears to drive them apart.

It wasn't an initial explosion that causes galaxies to move away from one another, but rather the physics of the expanding Universe as governed by Einstein's General Relativity that causes space (with galaxies contain within it) to expand. There was no explosion, just a rapid expansion thathas been evolving based on the cumulative gravitational effects of everything contained within our Universe.

Artists logarithmic scale conception of the observable universe. Note that we're limited in how far... [+] we can see back by the amount of time that's occurred since the hot Big Bang: 13.8 billion years, or (including the expansion of the Universe) 46 billion light years. Anyone living in our Universe, at any location, would see almost exactly the same thing from their vantage point.

2.) There is a point in space that we can trace the Big Bang 'event' back to. Similarly, there's no "center point" to the event of the Big Bang. You might initially think that if everything appears to be expanding away from everything else, then we can extrapolate everything back to when they all originated at the same location. Just as a grenade has a central location from where all the shrapnel must have originated, it makes sense to think the Universe must have had a similar point of origin.

But the Universe didn't explode; it just expanded.In an expanding Universe, every location in space looks the same, when you consider a large-enough volume of it. On the large-scale average, the Universe appears to have the same density, the same temperature, and the same number of galaxies everywhere. And if you extrapolate it back in time, it will appear hotter and denser, but that's because space itself is evolving and expanding, too.

The observable Universe might be 46 billion light years in all directions from our point of view,... [+] but there's certainly more, unobservable Universe, perhaps even an infinite amount, just like ours beyond that. Over time, we'll be able to see more of it, eventually revealing approximately 2.3 times as many galaxies as we can presently view.

When we extrapolate the Universe backwards in time, we can calculate that it must have been smaller and denser in the past, but that applies to all of space for all observers. Every single observer at every point has equal claim to being at the center, just as every region of space has the same large-scale properties as every other similarly sized region of space.

The Big Bang didn't happen at one single point, but rather occurred everywhere at once, and did so a finite amount of time ago. When we look back at the more distant regions in the Universe, we are looking back in time, and so is every other observer from every other perspective the Universe offers. The fact that the Universe has no repeating structures, shows no identifiable edge, and has no preferred direction all offer evidence that there is no specific origin point for the Big Bang: it happened everywhere at once, with no preferred central location at all.

The stars and galaxies we see today didn't always exist, and the farther back we go, the closer to... [+] an apparent singularity the Universe gets, as we go to hotter, denser, and more uniform states. However, there is a limit to that extrapolation, as going all the way back to a singularity creates puzzles we cannot answer.

3.) All of the matter and energy in our Universe was compressed into an infinitely hot, dense state at the Big Bang. If the Universe is expanding and cooling today, then it must have been smaller, denser, and hotter in the past. You can imagine, in fact, going all the way back, as far as your imagination can take you, until you've achieved a size that gets infinitesimally small, leading to arbitrarily high densities and temperatures. Perhaps that was the "instant" of the Big Bang: an infinitely hot, dense state.

Only, we have a few ways to test that hypothesis out!First off, the temperature fluctuations that we see today, left over in the cosmic microwave background, would have fluctuations that were as large as the maximum temperature compared to the Planck energy scale. Those fluctuations would appear only up to the scale of the cosmic horizon (and smaller). And there ought to be even left-over relics that only appear at high energies, like magnetic monopoles, filling our Universe.

The fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background are of such small magnitude and of such a... [+] particular pattern that they strongly indicate the Universe began with the same temperature everywhere and only had 1-part-in-30,000 fluctuations, a fact that is irreconciliable with an arbitrarily hot Big Bang.

In the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, respectively, humanity received our major results from the COBE, WMAP, and Planck missions. They probed the fluctuations in the leftover glow from the Big Bang: the cosmic microwave background, and helped look for these exact signatures. What they found, along with other experiments (like direct searches for magnetic monopoles), demonstrated that the Universe never reached temperatures that were greater than ~0.03% of the Planck energy scale.

The temperature fluctuations are only 1-part-in-30,000, thousands of times smaller than an infinitely hot state predicts. Fluctuations appear on scales larger than the cosmic horizon, robustly measured by both WMAP and Planck. And the constraints on magnetic monopoles and other ultra-high-energy relics strongly disfavor an ultra-high-energy past to our Universe. The conclusion? The Universe had a temperature cutoff in its past, never rising above a critical threshold.

Our entire cosmic history is theoretically well-understood, but only because we understand the... [+] theory of gravitation that underlies it, and because we know the Universe's present expansion rate and energy composition. Light will always continue to propagate through this expanding Universe, and we will continue to receive that light arbitrarily far into the future, but it will be limited in time as far as what reaches us. We still have unanswered questions about our cosmic origins, but the age of the Universe is known.

4.) The Big Bang makes it inevitable that our Universe began from a singularity.Even if the Universe reached a maximum temperature in the early stages of the hot Big Bang, there still needed to be a phase that preceded and set up that hot phase. In order to be consistent with what we observe, it must have:

The theory that sets up all of these initial conditions for the Big Bang is known as cosmic inflation, and has been verified by multiple lines of evidence.

Blue and red lines represent a traditional Big Bang scenario, where everything starts at time t=0,... [+] including spacetime itself. But in an inflationary scenario (yellow), we never reach a singularity, where space goes to a singular state; instead, it can only get arbitrarily small in the past, while time continues to go backwards forever. Only the last minuscule fraction of a second, from the end of inflation, imprints itself on our observable Universe today. The Hawking-Hartle no-boundary condition challenges the longevity of this state, as does the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem, but neither one is a sure thing.

But one of the key surprises that inflation brought along was the following realization: if inflation precedes the Big Bang, then it won't lead to a Universe that reaches an infinitesimal size at a finite point in the past. The Universe expands exponentially during inflation, which means that it will double in size on a certain timescale if you run the clock forward, but will only halve and halve in size on that same timescale if you go backwards. No matter how many "halves" you take, you never reach zero.

It's still possible that there was a separate phase that existed before cosmic inflationtook place, and if so, perhaps the Universe did begin from a singularity after all. But we can only state, based on the observational evidence we have, that inflation lasted at least some tiny fraction of a second, didn't lead to a singularity itself or at the start of the hot Big Bang, and we do not know what came before inflation began.

The different ways dark energy could evolve into the future. Remaining constant or increasing in... [+] strength (into a Big Rip) could potentially rejuvenate the Universe, while reversing sign could lead to a Big Crunch. Under either of those two scenarios, time may be cyclical, while if neither comes true, time could either be finite or infinite in duration to the past.

5.) Space, time, and the laws of physics did not exist prior to the Big Bang.If you had reached a true singularity, or a place where you reached infinite densities and temperatures, the laws of physics would break down. In General Relativity, singularities are where spacetime can either enter or exit existence, and without spacetime, there are not even necessarily rules that govern the physical Universe that could exist within it.

But those laws must certainly have existed during the inflationary phase that set up the Big Bang itself.With the knowledge we have of inflation, and the observational confirmation of its predictions, however, new questions arise. These include:

The three major possibilities for how time behaves in our Universe are that time has always existed... [+] and will always exist, that time only existed for a finite duration if we extrapolate backwards, or that time is cyclical, and will repeat, with no beginning and no end. The Big Bang looked like it provided an answer for a time, but has since been superseded, plunging our origins back into uncertainty.

The truth is that it's possible, but we don't know for sure. Only the final fraction-of-a-second of inflation imprints itself on our Universe, and anything that occurred before that moment has had its observable signatures literally inflated away. Even theoretical attempts toargue about the complete/incomplete nature of inflationary spacetimes aren't concrete; it's possible that inflation didn't last forever, and had a singular beginning, but it's also possible that it either endured eternally or even had a cyclic character, with space and time looping back on itself eventually.

Thousands of years ago, there were three main possibilities for how time began: it has always existed, it began a finite duration in the past, or it's cyclical in nature. Even with all we've learned about the Big Bang and what set it up, it's impossible to draw a robust conclusion. We don't have sufficient information in our observable Universe to know whether time is finite or infinite; whether it's cyclical or linear. But even before the Big Bang, we can be certain that space, time, and the laws of physics themselves definitely existed.

That's 5 common Big Bang misconceptions, all thoroughly dispelled.

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Don't Believe These 5 Myths About The Big Bang - Forbes

BTS: Jimin’s Blue Hair in the New Concept Photos and at the Airport Will Stop You in Your Tracks – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Yup, were not going to survive BTS next comeback, and the reaction to Jimins blue hair which coincidentally matches the Map of the Soul: 7 album cover proves it. Recently, Big Hit Entertainment dropped new concept photos depicting the septet RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook as black and white swans. Then a few hours later, the band was spotted at an airport in South Korea after promotions in the United States. In both cases, Jimin appeared with dark blue locks, subsequently sending many BTS fans down the rabbit hole of excitement about the new era.

For the past few weeks, BTS has been busy with promotions in the U.S. First up, the group performed at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. They then ran the media circuit to discuss Map of the Soul: 7, including guest spots on iHeartRadio and The Late Late Show with James Corden. The band will also appear on a special BTS-centric episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which will air sometime in the near future.

Now, according to videos published by Newsen and Stark on Feb. 10, BTS landed at the Incheon International Airport, where they were surrounded by a sea of onlookers, paparazzi, and security.

The South Korean publications also captured the seven members walking out in their airport fashion outfits. And per usual, Jimin popped out dressed in all-black. But this time, the Serendipity singer who was last seen with platinum blonde hair while performing Black Swan on Jan. 28 sported blue-black hair.

Following the medias release of BTS airport arrival, many fans gushed over Jimins blue hair on social media.

GOOD MORNING TO JIMINS DARK BLUE HAIR ONLY, a fan wrote on Twitter.

JIMINS HAIR IS DARK BLUE CONFIRMED, another fan tweeted alongside a photo of the music artists hair color change.

It seems Jimins dark blue airport hair was a teaser for what was to come. Soon after BTS returned to Korea, the second wave of Map of the Soul: 7 concept photos dropped online.

The first version illustrated the seven members as white swans with the desire for perfection, according to Billboard. Then the second version of the new concept photos portrayed BTS as black swans with an unquenchable thirst. The theme also appears to tie into Vs Singularity outfit during Love Yourself, Speak Yourself [The Final].

Regardless, many BTS fans were captivated by Jimins midnight blue hair featured in the singer-dancers solo and group shots.

HOLY CRAP THESE ARE SO GORGEOUS JUST LOOK AT THEM WITH THE BLACK HAIR AND JIMIN WITH THE DARK BLUE, one fan wrote on Reddit.

Jimin just emits power. His whole look, this hair, that corset. Also, peep that black feather pinned to his shirt, a fan wrote on Twitter.

And of course, many members of ARMY pointed out Jimins hair matches the blue in Map of the Soul: 7, similarly to how the Lie crooner previously colored his hair Map of the Soul: Persona pink.

Jimin really be matching his hair colour with album covers, a fan tweeted.

Its pretty clear BTS fans are eager to see what the band has in store for Map of the Soul: 7. And now, as Jimin commits to blue locks, the new era feels closer than ever. So stay tuned. Feb. 21 is just around the corner.

Read more: BTS Reveals the Powerful Meaning Behind Map of the Soul: 7

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BTS: Jimin's Blue Hair in the New Concept Photos and at the Airport Will Stop You in Your Tracks - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

The Basics of Blockchain Technology, Explained in Plain …

Historically, no asset has been a greater source of wealth creation than the stock market. Throughout its history, stocks have returned an average of 7% per year, inclusive of dividend reinvestment, and when adjusted for inflation. For the average long-term investor, this works out to a roughly doubling in value about once a decade.

Then cryptocurrencies came along and turned this traditional source of wealth creation on its head. When 2017 began, the aggregate value of all digital currencies combined equaled just $17.7 billion. However, as recently as this past weekend, the combined market cap of the nearly 1,400 investable cryptocurrencies was almost $836 billion. That better than 4,500% increase in value is something that the stock market would take multiple decades to accomplish.

Yet, truth be told, most folks don't understand the basics of cryptocurrencies, or the blockchain technology that underlies them. Recently, we broke down what cryptocurrencies are in the easiest way possible. Today, we're going to explain, in plain English, what blockchain technology is all about.

Image source: Getty Images.

Blockchain is the digital and decentralized ledger that records all transactions. Every time someone buys digital coins on a decentralized exchange, sells coins, transfers coins, or buys a good or service with virtual coins, a ledger records that transaction, often in an encrypted fashion, to protect it from cybercriminals. These transactions are also recorded and processed without a third-party provider, which is usually a bank.

The main reason we even have this cryptocurrency and blockchain revolution is as a result of the perceived shortcomings of the traditional banking system. What shortcomings, you ask? For example, when transferring money to overseas markets, a payment could be delayed for days while a bank verifies it. Many would argue that financial institutions shouldn't tie up cross-border payments and funds for such an extensive amount of time.

Likewise, banks almost always serve as an intermediary of currency transactions, thus taking their cut in the process. Blockchain developers want the ability to process payments without a need for this middleman.

Image source: Getty Images.

So, what does blockchain technology bring to the table that current payment networks don't? For starters, and as noted, it's decentralized. That's a fancy way of saying that there's no central hub where transaction data is stored. Instead, servers and hard drives all over the world hold bits and pieces of these blocks of data. This is done for two purposes. First, it ensures that no one party can gain control over a cryptocurrency and blockchain. Also, it keeps cybercriminals from being able to hold a digital currency "hostage" should they gain access to transaction data.

Second, removing the middleman from the equation and working around the traditional banking system should allow for smaller transaction fees. What's unclear is if lower fees would mean cheaper fees for the consumer, or just bigger profits for businesses deploying blockchain technology.

Third, and maybe most important, blockchain offers the potential to process transactions considerably faster. Whereas banks are often closed on the weekend, and operate during traditional hours, validation of transactions on a blockchain occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some blockchain developers have suggested that their networks can validate transactions in a few seconds, or perhaps instantly. That would be a big improvement over the current wait time for cross-border payments.

Image source: Getty Images.

However, blockchain isn't perfect, and it does have some clear drawbacks.

One obvious hurdle is the adoption of the technology. To deploy blockchain, financial institutions would essentially have to abandon their current networks and start anew. Trying to integrate the current payment networks with blockchain could prove exceptionally challenging -- to the point where some businesses don't even bother trying to do so. It's also still unclear, with the exception of bitcoin (CCY: BTC-USD), the world's most popular cryptocurrency, if any blockchain aside from bitcoin could survive being scaled to handle a lot of transactions.

Blockchain can also, depending on the circumstance, be very energy dependent, and therefore costly. When transactions are being verified (which we're going to talk about in the next section), it's possible that a lot of electricity can be used. This is the case in point with bitcoin, which is why so few cryptocurrency miners actually find that validating transactions on bitcoin's blockchain is worthwhile (and profitable).

Differentiation of blockchain networks is also a concern. Right now, there are close to 1,400 cryptocurrencies, and many have their own versions of blockchain technology. It's unclear which few will rise to the front of the pack, or which blockchains businesses will prefer. What's in favor now could quickly become yesterday's news.

Image source: Getty Images.

Processing transactions on blockchain also comes with the issue of ensuring that the same cryptocurrency coin isn't being spent twice. That's where transaction validation comes into play.

There are two primary ways that transactions on blockchain are validated: proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS).

Bitcoin runs on the PoW model. What happens with PoW is that cryptocurrency miners (a fancy term for people with really high-powered computers) compete against one another to solve complex mathematical equations that are a result of the encryption protecting transactions on a blockchain network. The first miner to solve these equations, and in the process validate a block of transactions, receives what's known as a "block reward." For bitcoin, a block reward is paid as a fraction of digital bitcoin.

The other primary validation method is PoS. Rather than using a ton of electricity in a competition to solve equations, the PoS method awards the owners of virtual coins the opportunity to validate transactions in a deterministic fashion. In even plainer terms, the more coins you own of a virtual currency operating on the PoS model, the more likely you are to be chosen to validate blocks and add to the blockchain.

It's worth pointing out that while the PoW method hands out block rewards as virtual coins, the PoS model rewards its stakeholders with the transaction fees paid by the users of the block that's being verified.

Image source: Getty Images.

One of the greatest aspects of blockchain technology is the ability for a developer or business to customize it. This means a blockchain can be completely open to the public and allow anyone to join, or it can be totally private, with only certain folks allowed access to the data, or allowed to send and receive payments. Bitcoin is an example of an open-source public blockchain that allows anyone to join, whereas a private blockchain would be perfect for a corporate customer.

Despite popular belief, most blockchain transactions aren't anywhere near as private or anonymous as you'd like to think. Even though you don't have to provide a Social Security number or bank account when buying or selling cryptocurrencies, an analysis of a blockchain can often be traced back to an individual sender or receiving of funds.

A small class of digital currencies known as privacy coins aims to make blockchain-based transactions untraceable. They do this by beefing up the protocols designed to obscure the identity of the sender and receiver of funds, as well as the dollar amount being sent. Yes, privacy coins have been accused of being a haven for the criminal community. However, most privacy coin and blockchain developers also suggest that this is a minute component of their community, and that nearly all members are legitimate consumers and businesses.

Image source: Getty Images.

Up to this point, you've probably noticed that we've discussed the application of blockchain as a means to improve the financial services industry. But, it may actually have plenty of use beyond the financial sector.

For example, Ethereum (CCY: ETH-USD), which has a nearly $116 billion market cap and is the second-largest cryptocurrency behind bitcoin, currently has 200 organizations testing a version of its blockchain technology.Yes, traditional banks are testing out Ethereum's blockchain, but so are companies in the technology and energy industries. Integrated oil and gas giant BP (NYSE:BP) envisions using a version of Ethereum's blockchain to aid it with energy futures trading. If these transactions were to settle faster, BP could presumably improve its margin.

Blockchain may also offer the ability to replace state ID's that we carry in our wallets, or perhaps help tech companies such asCisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) manage their Internet of Things network. Right now, Cisco is working on its own proprietary blockchain technology that can identify different connected devices, monitor the activity of those devices, and determine how trustworthy those devices are. It has the potential to continually "learn" and assess which devices are trustworthy, and if they should be added to a network.

So yes, blockchain is about way more than just sending money.

Image source: Getty Images.

Lastly, you're probably wondering how viable blockchain is. The honest answer is, "no one knows."

Truth be told, blockchain has been around for almost a decade thanks to bitcoin, but it's only now beginning to garner a lot of attention. Most businesses that are testing blockchain technology are doing so in a very limited capacity (i.e., demos or small-scale projects). No one is entirely certain if blockchain can handle being scaled as so many of its developers have suggested.

Perhaps one of the best real-world examples of blockchain in action is the partnership between Ripple (CCY: XRP-USD) and banking giants American Express (NYSE:AXP) and Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN). It was announced in mid-November that American Express users would be able to send non-card payments to U.K. Santander accounts over AmEx's FX International Payment network and have those transactions processed over Ripple's blockchain. The allure of this partnership is Ripple's instantly settling cross-border payments, as well as the expectation of small transaction fees.

Can blockchain really go mainstream? While that question remains unanswered for now, at least you have a better understanding of what this craze is all about.

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Vermont Turns to Home-Grown Blockchain Company to Track Hemp With Ethereum – Coindesk

Vermont regulators will track hemp production on the ethereum mainnet in partnership with cannabis supply chain blockchain startup Trace.

The five-year deal, announced Monday by Vermonts Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM), is a production-ready solution for every level of the hemp trade, said Trace CEO Josh Decatur. Beginning in March, farmers and processors will begin putting all associated crop data into the Trace system, which runs on ethereum.

It is one of the first times a state regulatory agency has decided to run with the ethereum mainnet, Decatur told CoinDesk in a phone call. The two-year-old company, based in Vermont's capital Montpelier, has built an app users can share details through, and gas fees for conducting transactions are passed onto the users in this case, the state government.

Everyone is deriving value from innate blockchain tech namely the security that comes with public permissionless blockchain technology, he said.

Vermonts regulators said this is the first full-scale government registration and licensing system that pairs blockchain with the nascent hemp industry. Hemp was legalized nationally in the 2018 Farm Bill, but Vermonts program runs under the 2014 edition.

A cannabis strain used in the textiles industry, hemp represents a small but growing slice of Vermonts agriculture sector. The Green Mountain State had just 1,000 registered hemp farmers in 2019 with nearly 9,000 acres of farmland, as well as 300 processors, according Stephanie Smith, VAAFMs Hemp Program manager.

Its important to understand whats being grown, where it's being grown and where its going after being harvested, she said.

The mini-boom foreshadowed VAAFMs call for a hemp registration system. Trace, whose CEO has roots in the Northern California grow scene, beat out the competition.Being based in Vermont didn't hurt either.

We spent the last couple of years finding innovative ways to hone a product that could meet the tracking and data requirements of a state agency, Decatur said.

His Vermont-based team had been building seed-to-shelf tools for other sectors of the cannabis supply chain, such as cannabidiol (CBD) products. The company built patented software, an app and a web portal to document where, when and to whom a plant and its derivative products move.

Traces solution relies on the ethereum network. At 15 transactions per second, the network is hardly a salve for industrial users moving massive amounts of data. But that doesnt matter for the low-frequency hemp lot farmers who, Decatur said, only send three to four transactions per year.

The use case that weve applied the tech to fits into the performance restrictions of ethereum, he said.

Traces registration system should be live by the end of March, according to Smith, in time for the start of the outdoor growing season in June.

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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Here’s how blockchain could be used to help tuna stocks recover – World Economic Forum

Imagine being able to scan a pack of fish with your smartphone and know instantly the journey that tuna steak had made from bait to plate - even down to when, where and which boat caught it.

Well, thats now possible, thanks to a new wave of technology being trialled by WWF and partners in the Pacific islands.

This scannable technology could help you trace the fish you buy

Image: Netflix/WWF

Blockchain could revolutionize tuna fishing - making illegal fishing impossible, protecting fish stocks, and allowing consumers to know with certainty the fish on their plate is sustainably sourced.

If you have the opportunity as a consumer to know with confidence that youre buying from a fishery that engages in sustainable and ethical practices, then of course you would want to do that, says Bubba Cook, WWF Pacific.

More than half of the worlds tuna comes from the Pacific Ocean. But tuna fisheries are at a turning point, says Cook.

The Pacific bluefin tuna is heavily overfished and the biomass is at near historically low levels," according to the latest report from the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.

Illegal fishing drives declines in certain fish stocks. Traceability can help fight those declines.

Image: International Seafood Sustainability Foundation

We have seen heavy depletion in certain stocks, like for instance the Pacific bluefin tuna which is at less than 3% of its historic biomass. That should be a shocking figure for anyone that the historic stock has been depleted to the point where the tank is almost empty, says Cook.

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a major threat to marine biodiversity, the sustainability and balance of marine ecosystems, and to fish populations worldwide.

But it also impacts fisheries. The estimated average IUU catch in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean in 2009 had a value of up to $1.5 billion, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Illegal catches of skipjack, yellowfin, albacore and bigeye tunas are estimated at $548 million annually.

If we dont improve traceability and address illegal fishing then were going to see continued declines in our fisheries, says Cook.

By preventing illegal activities, blockchain technology could help tuna stocks to recover and help fisheries worldwide.

Blockchain can track the journey of a single fish, recording information regarding where it was caught and how it was processed.

Once that information enters the system, it is verified by a network of thousands of computers, making it impossible to manipulate or falsify.

In the Pacific Island tuna industry, WWF has partnered with global blockchain venture studio ConsenSys, ICT implementer TraSeable, and tuna fishing and processing company Sea Quest Fiji Ltd to stamp out illegal fishing and slave labour.

This scanning feature could wipe out the market for illegal tuna.

Image: WWF/Netflix

If blockchain were to be fully implemented, it would be impossible for any illegal or unreported tuna to enter the market, says Cook.

Because its immutable and tamper-proof, blockchain creates an opportunity for verification and validation. It allows retailers and buyers to understand where [fish] is coming from.

In time, were going to see blockchain become the industry standard for transparency and traceability.

Its really exciting to think about the potential for that technology and what it could mean in terms of helping consumers make the right choices and drive things in a sustainable and ethical direction.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Here's how blockchain could be used to help tuna stocks recover - World Economic Forum

IBM bets on blockchain to leverage cloud revenue – CIO Dive

Dive Brief:

Industry watchers say blockchain adoption in the enterprise is in its infancy.IBM's got time and resources to watch it evolve and deliver more workloads to its cloud.

Since 2018, IBM has tripled its blockchain patents each year, and has a workforce of 2,000 blockchain experts focused on development and implementation,the company told CIO Dive. Citing customers the size of Ford, Maersk and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, IBM's strategy hinges on luring more customers to its cloud platform.

IBM has worked to make inroads in advanced technologies such as quantum computing unveiling the IBM Q System One last year and blockchain. But the enterprise cloud market, led by Amazon Web Services,has remained elusive.

In the broader cloud market, IBM is a niche player, according to Gartner stats. In 2018 it landed in last place among the top five providers, with 1.8% of market share. IBM trails its closest competitor, Google Cloud, which sits at 4%.

In 2018, artificial intelligence, cloud and blockchain projects helped IBM emerge from a 22-quarter revenue growth crater. In January, IBM announced a succession plan for CEO Ginni Rometty, who led the company through a computing evolution. The company's choice of a cloud executive as CEO highlights IBM's shift to focus on the technology. Arvind Krishna, who will become CEO on April 6, currently serves as SVP for cloud and cognitive software.

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IBM bets on blockchain to leverage cloud revenue - CIO Dive

What Does 2020 Have in Store for the Blockchain? – Yahoo Finance

2018 and 2019 could be described as years in which there was a redefinition of blockchain technology and to what uses it should be channelled to. The decline of the market in 2018 as well as the rollercoaster ride of 2019 gave room for real-life use cases for blockchain technology to come to the fore.

So what does 2020 have in store for the blockchain? We can expect to see the following:

A bill has been submitted to the US Congress seeking to provide a proper regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, with legal backing. Harnessing the full potential of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies is only possible when this industry is regulated just enough to root out the bad guys, but not too much as to stifle innovation.

Many countries may perhaps be waiting to see what model of regulation the US brings to the table. Successful deployment of a regulatory framework in the US could spur a slew of similar actions across the globe.

If blockchain assets and other digital currencies are brought into regulation in the US, this may finally give the confidence to other institutional players to bring money into the market, knowing that they have a cover for their humongous investments. Enterprise adoption is going to increase and we will see further deepening of the cryptocurrency market as well as adoption of more real life use cases for blockchain projects.

Many more of the much-hyped ICOs of 2017 and 2018 that were on one form of life support or another may finally be killed off this year as disillusioned investors jettison whatever they can of their battered holdings in order to recover some of their investment. Many of those ICOs were simply riding the moving horse. With that horse starting to tire, it became aware of all the deadweight and started to throw them off its back. This is exactly what has happened to all the deadbeat ICOs which had no real product, no value to add, but only served as a way for the founders to make money off gullible people who could not predict what would happen down the road.

Ripple was able to raise an additional $200m in December 2019 despite the underwhelming performance of its token in the market. The reason is simple: it has a working product which is gathering loads of attention from the relevant market and more players in that sector are signing up. Projects which have great use case scenarios will keep attracting more funding and more clientele. It will only be a matter of time before the boys are separated from the men.

Bitcoin looks good to continue its dominance in the cryptocurrency market. According to TradingBeasts cryptocurrency guide for novice traders, it still commands the market capitalization, the trading volumes and market interest all across the world to maintain this position. Mention some other cryptocurrency in some parts of the world and many would draw blank; mention Bitcoin and the lights come on.

We expect this to continue in 2020. This will be more pronounced in countries whose national currencies would struggle in the face of economic turmoil. In these areas, Bitcoin would become the new safe haven asset, which only serves to continue Bitcoins market domination.

Some countries are in the stage of conceptualization, or are already in advanced stages of development of their national cryptocurrencies. Examples of countries that are considering launching digital versions of their national currencies include Switzerland and China, although the latter continues to keep mum over such a development. 2020 may also see more countries opening discussions and consultations to kickstart the digitalization of their national countries. However, these discussions seem to be well pronounced in Europe, less so in Asia and virtually non-existent in Africa and Latin America. Will the lagging countries be open to the idea? 2020 will tell.

Libra is yet to take off the blocks and already the project has started to face hitches with stiff opposition from the US, France and a few other countries. Some of its consort partners have also pulled out of the project. 2020 will determine if this project will take off or if Mark Zuckerberg and his team will decide to either kill off the project or replace it with something that is more agreeable to regulators and finance ministers.

So these are the events we think will shape the blockchain industry in 2020.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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What Does 2020 Have in Store for the Blockchain? - Yahoo Finance

Cryptocurrency in Focus: Making PAX With Traditional Banking – TheStreet

Paxos Standard (PAX) continues to blur the line between traditional finance and the blockchain -- to the benefit of its users.

One of several types of cryptocurrencies that attempts to offer both anonymity and stability, PAX is a regulated "stablecoin" -- those cryptocurrencies that are backed by reserve assets. Now, it's also begun offering auto-transfers between bank deposits and stablecoins, so thatcustomers can automatically wire funds from U.S. bank accounts into either Paxos Standard or Binance USD stablecoins.

First issued in 2018 by the New York-based blockchain company Paxos, PAX was released as a token on the Ethereum Blockchain and is backed by funds held in FDIC-insured, U.S.-domiciled banks.

The Paxos Standard Token is now the fourth largest stablecoin with a market cap of $220 million and trading volumes of around $350 million daily. It is listed on over 100 exchanges, walletsand over-the-counter desks and has grown in popularity among traders due to its immediate settlement and verified reserves.

PAX FCAS is up 34-points (4.45%) since late-January when Paxos announced a new feature allowing customers to automatically wire transfer funds to or from their bank accounts. The goal is to increase the inflow of dollars on the Ethereum blockchain.

The team highlights the practicality of this new automated feature if you have weekly, recurring deposits of USD; if you are a trader who needs stablecoins on a weekly basis, or a merchant who accepts payment in stablecoins for instance. The team is actively making these transfers faster, within minutes for requests below a certain USD threshold, which explains the 10.22% increase in Developer Behavior were seeing.

FCAS is up 34-points (4.45%)

Developer Behavior is up 57-points (10.22%)

User Activity is up 14-points (1.48%)

Market Maturity is down 1-point (-0.10%)

TheStreet

Stablecoins provide the standard benefits of cryptocurrency without the volatility of price. This makes them extremely useful for users who wish to switch between a volatile cryptocurrency or traditional currency, and a more stable asset.

Regulations in the U.S., however, may deem stablecoins as evidence of debt that is put in circulation as money, forcing the issuer to be licensed as a bank or trust company. Paxos (formerly known as itBit Trust Company LLC) is well positioned in this regard because it is licensed as a limited purpose trust company, distinguishing itself within the blockchain industry as a trustworthy issuer.

Were really a technology firm at heart, and so were trying to give you the confidence of a bank, but the innovation of Silicon Valley, Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla says.

The FCAS Tracker provides institutional and sophisticated retail investors a top-down approach to tracking 500+ cryptocurrencies fundamentals. FCAS Tracker is currently free to a select group of new users as we continue to develop the product. Visit us here to gain access to Flipside Analytics.

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Cryptocurrency in Focus: Making PAX With Traditional Banking - TheStreet

Bitcoin recently topped $10,000 but dont expect a run to record highs – MarketWatch

Bitcoin is back around $10,000. But dont be fooled into thinking that means the cryptocurrency is destined to revisit previous highs twice this level.

Im not saying this means a collapse. For better or worse, bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.26% is here to stay. But that doesnt mean that investors should consider it a wise or safe investment now.

After all, the vast majority of bitcoin price movement is built on the sentiment of the moment. This is not necessarily a damning commentary in itself, as there are entire investing disciplines built around chasing sentiment in everything from microcaps to boring old index funds. But its important to take a hard look at immediate market trends before you buy in.

And right now, the short-term sentiment just isnt pointing in the right direction for bitcoin.

Admittedly, the currency was off to a red-hot start in 2020 as it logged its best January since 2013, thanks to a 30% monthly gain. Whats more, this comes amid a historical backdrop where bitcoin lost ground in the last five prior Januarys.

On the surface that looks encouraging. But as a Coindesk analyst pointed out recently, part of the force behind this rise is structural and related to a planned supply-cutting event in May 2020 where miners will receive half the cryptocurrency reward for solving the underlying bitcoin blockchain. Markets typically see a boost in the several months before the halving date but then a clear market cycle top near the event itself, he writes. Its a structural pullback that old-school investors may call a buy the rumor, sell the news action.

Furthermore, before this breakout January in anticipation of the supply change, there was very little to be optimistic about in regard to bitcoin prices. In the second half of 2019, for instance, bitcoin declined in 15 out of 27 weeks with two more weeks ending flat. Thats only about a 38% weekly win rate.

The most damning evidence of all is that after briefly topping $10,000, bitcoin failed to hold on with a fast pullback of about 5% back below $9,800 on Monday, and volume appears to be weakening this week as dip buyers are reluctant to emerge and give the rally fuel to power higher.

Its also worth remembering that many bitcoin traders had plenty of swagger in early 2019 as the digital currency briefly flirted with $12,000 as it traded at levels not seen since the late-2017 bubble. But they were burned quickly by a big pullback last fall, as the cryptocurrency crashed below $8,000, owing to cratering sentiment and an underperforming Bakkt exchange launch in October that failed to generate much-anticipated interest.

The bottom line in bitcoin has always been volatility. So perhaps rather than clutching to the idea of $10,000, investors should take a more objective look at Januarys bottom of around $8,300 as a sign of where things could settle or worse, prices as low as $6,500 set as recently as December.

Some breathless supporters will surely pile into the comment section to remind me that this kind of short-termism is missing the whole point. To them, bitcoin is a safe haven investment akin to gold and in this environment of heightened uncertainty, now is the perfect time to pile in to this cryptocurrency as an alternative to risky stocks.

Thats a dangerous mischaracterization for two reasons: the first is that bitcoin is decidedly not gold, and the second is that even gold isnt quite a stable as its proponents claim.

On the first point, lets keep in mind that bitcoin went from under $1,000 to over $17,000 in less than a years time. Sure, it was to the upside, but its the very definition of a volatile move. Furthermore, we saw a lurch back down to a low of about $3,500 in early 2019 before a late-year rally took the cryptocurrency back to top $12,000 last summer.

In other words, this investment swung up 16,000%, crashed about 80%, then raced back up 240% ... all in less than three years. I know some people have different definitions of stable, but it is objectively incorrect to use that word about bitcoin.

On the second point, its important to divorce the mythos of gold as a store of value from the reality of past performance. The hard numbers show that gold bullion is largely an uncorrelated asset that doesnt move consistently based on the gyrations of the stock market. That admittedly has its appeal if you want to diversify, but its a far cry from a sure thing investment that is immune to tough times.

Consider the steady and substantial drop from around $1,800 an ounce in late 2012 to a low of around $1,100 by the end of 2015 as proof.

Bitcoin investors are right in some ways to compare the cryptocurrency to gold. Both assets can move independent of the stock market, and that means the potential for gains even when blue-chip stocks stumble in the short-term. But neither asset is a sure thing, and neither asset is a practical replacement for U.S. dollars or equity markets.

Im not nave enough to write one of the many premature obituaries for this digital asset, I have no beef with swing traders of bitcoin or any other asset, for that matter. And I truly think blockchain technology has huge potential in the long run. But its important to tune out the black-helicopter crowd that thinks any investment is the only safe bet, be it gold, bitcoin or otherwise. Thats simply not a logical way to invest.

Jeff Reeves is a MarketWatch columnist.

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Bitcoin recently topped $10,000 but dont expect a run to record highs - MarketWatch

Ethereum rival Nervos announces first recipients of $30 million grant – Decrypt

When the Nervos Networka new, two-tiered Ethereum competitor that relies on a proof-of-work blockchainraised $72 million in a token sale, a huge chunk of the money was reserved for network development.

Nervos values its development grant pot at $30 million. Its made up of the cash it raised from the token sale (its token is called the Common Knowledge Byte), as well as some of the money from the market.

Its actually not really that much money, Ben Waters, Nervoss head of operations, told Decrypt, considering the companys plan to build up the network over the next five or ten years. Its a good raise, he said, but we definitely think we need to be very efficient with how we use the capital.

Today, Nervos announced the first two recipients of the money. Theyll build some of the infrastructure for the Nervos Network.

The first, Summa, a small blockchain company based in San Francisco, will get $75,000 to build a set of open-source libraries thatll make Nervos interoperable with the Bitcoin network. James Prestwich, co-founder of Summa, told Decrypt he first learned of Nervos in early 2019, and that he was impressed by its innovative state model.

Nervos gave the second recipient, Obsidian Labs, also based in San Francisco, $180,000 to develop a graphic IDE for developers building on Nervos. Itll make it easier for companies to build on Nervos, Rose Ren, co-founder of Obsidian Labs told Decrypt. With the Nervos IDE, developers will be able to read a simple tutorial on Medium and spend their time building rather than learning a new language, she said.

The Nervos Network is a two-tiered blockchain network. On the base layer, a proof-of-work consensus mechanism confirms important transactions. On the top layer, developers can build applications with unlimited scalability, claim Nervos. Nervos is underpinned by the CKB token, which users can pledge in exchange for state storage space on the base layer of the network.

Given its reliance on proof of work, and Ethereums move toward proof of stake, Waters said that Nervos is for people who think that that proof of work is the correct consensus algorithm, and the only real consensus algorithm that can deliver decentralization.

Its popular in Chinathe teams roots are in Chinas crypto space, the core development team is based out of Hangzhou, and its raised money from China Merchants Bank International, the international arm of the major Chinese bank.

In around six to twelve months, Nervos will open grants for decentralized applications and use cases, said Waters; these two grants are a precursor to more advanced stages of development.

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Ethereum rival Nervos announces first recipients of $30 million grant - Decrypt

Mastercard, Binance X and Ripple’s Xpring Join the Blockchain Education Alliance – Cointelegraph

The Blockchain Education Alliance launched by blockchain accelerator MouseBelt has gained several noteworthy new members.

Ashlie Meredith, the university program director for MouseBelt Blockchain Accelerator, told Cointelegraph on Feb. 11 that the new members include payment processing behemoth Mastercard, the innovation arm of major crypto exchange Binance, Binance X, Ripple's accelerator Xpring and cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin.

Smart contract platform NEO, internet-of-things startup IoTeX, blockchain security firm Quantstamp and big data blockchain service Constellation Labs also joined the alliance.

According to its official website, the Blockchain Education Alliance aims to support education to ensure students receive the skills, connections, and knowledge necessary to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem.

At its launch in October 2019, the alliance counted Stellar Development Foundation, Tron, Hedera, Icon, Ontology, Wanchain, Harmony One, Nervos, Orbs, LTO Network, Emurgo, Nem, and ETC Labs among its members.

In August 2019, MouseBelt launched a blockchain education initiative at three campuses in the University of California system.

The blockchain and cryptocurrency industry has long been suffering from the lack of a specialized workforce able to move the space forward. In late August 2019, Ripples head of social impact, Ken Weber, said that universities around the world should expand their education programs to offer blockchain and digital assets training courses.

Last month, Nikolai Mushegian, a former MakerDAO contributor and Carnegie Mellon alumnus committed 10,000 MKR valued at just under $5.65 million at press time to his alma mater to develop a research program for decentralized applications. In October 2019, a Masters degree in blockchain and distributed ledger technology was launched at the University of Malta.

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Mastercard, Binance X and Ripple's Xpring Join the Blockchain Education Alliance - Cointelegraph

Rep. Lynch wants the Census Bureau to look into ‘blockchain viability’ for 2030 – FedScoop

Written by Tajha Chappellet-Lanier Feb 12, 2020 | FEDSCOOP

A senior member of the House Oversight Committee says hesinterested in exploring the use of blockchain for an upcoming decennial census.

I know that blockchain is used extensively on databases and registries in other countries, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass, said Wednesday during a hearing on the 2020 census. Are we looking at anything like that where we can use a more secure system, a distributed system, one that is less vulnerable in terms of where the census is going?

The Government Accountability Offices Nick Marinos, the watchdog agencys director for IT and cybersecurity, replied that while he is not aware that thetechnology was explored for the 2020 census, it may be an option for the bureau to consider for 2030.

Despite some pockets of strong interest in blockchain in the federal government,the distributed ledger technology is generally unpopular among many members of the civic technology community. Its seen as aposter child for hype, shiny object syndrome and government tech solutionism. Its also a technology with a narrow range of use cases and its either unnecessary or inefficient to use outside of these cases.

Lynch hinted that he might be interested in ordering the Census Bureau to conduct a study on blockchain viability within the census, and suggestedthat GAO should take initiative on such work. Lynch is a member of the panels Government Operations Subcommittee, which helps shape federal IT policy, and is chairman of its National Security Subcommittee.

Wednesdays hearing followed release of a new GAO report on the 2020 census that details mixed readiness for upcoming census operations. Marinos testified that while the bureau has successfully delivered several operational systems to date, it still faces schedule risks for five out of the 11 remaining deliveries including on the system for internet self-response.

Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham, meanwhile, maintained that the systems are on schedule and will be delivered as needed. He told the Oversight Committee that hes confident the online self-response system will be able to deal with any surge in user numbers, because it has been designed to far exceed the bureaus expectations.

In total, the 2020 census will rely on 52 new or legacy IT systems.

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Rep. Lynch wants the Census Bureau to look into 'blockchain viability' for 2030 - FedScoop

A 378.10% rise in less than 4 months is Tezos the new Bitcoin? – FXStreet

According to their site, Tezos is an open-source platform for assets and applications backed by a global community of validators, researchers, and builders.

According to me its a rocket!

For those who know nothing about Tezos:

It is a technology for deploying a blockchain capable of modifying its own set of rules and it is said to causeminimal disruption to the network through an on-chain governance model.

Unlike other blockchains like as Bitcoin or Ethereum, in its most popular incarnation, a Tezos blockchain does not rely on mining (Proof of Work) but instead uses a Proof-of-Stake based consensus model.

They started recently in 2017 and areaSwiss-based non-profit. The company managed to raise a massive USD 232 million to become one of the biggestICOsat that moment.

The concept is soo popular thatIn July 2019,Banco BTG Pactualtogether with Dalma Capital, a Dubai based asset manager, announced plans to utilize the Tezos blockchain forSecurity Token Offerings(STOs).

It seems that they are on to something as you can see from the chart below. You cant really use any kind of technicals to forecast where this will end. Much like Bitcoin back in November 2018 let's let the market decide!.

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A 378.10% rise in less than 4 months is Tezos the new Bitcoin? - FXStreet

Samsungs new Galaxy S20 will have cryptocurrency support – Decrypt

Samsung announced a new generation of smartphones during its Unpacked event on February 11. The Galaxy S20s provide advanced cameras, 5G technology and will be able to store your crypto.

However, unlike Samsungs last range of phones, the Galaxy S10s, it hasnt broadcast the cryptocurrency support to the same degree. While previously it advertised its blockchain keystore, announcing new coinsand eventually adding Bitcointhis time theres barely a mention of crypto or blockchain anywhere.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 has an upgraded screen. Image: Samsung.

The only reference is on Samsungs official website, which states that the S20 phones will contain a secure processor dedicated to protecting your PIN, password, pattern and Blockchain Private Key.

But elsewhere its lacking. There are no details as to what this might entail, which coins are supported and how many apps will be able to access the crypto support.

However, we can look to previous phones for answers. The S10s contained a secure enclave for keeping private keys, kept in the phones Knox security platform. It connects to Samsungs blockchain keystore app, which is used for people to see their balances and send money. Considering that the S20 also contains Knox, its possible that it will continue to use the same system.

We have reached out to Samsung for details on the S20s blockchain support and will update this article if we hear back.

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Samsungs new Galaxy S20 will have cryptocurrency support - Decrypt

How blockchain regulations will change in 2020 – TechTalks

By Andrey Sergeenkov

As 2018 drew to a close, crypto skeptics were ready to write obituaries after the devastating bear market that year. Talk of blockchain and cryptocurrency demise was rife among seasoned analysts. Just over twelve months later, the industry has shown remarkable resilience to rebound back.

Regulators are a segment of stakeholders who seem to be appreciating that crypto is here to stay, with Federal agencies in the US and Chinese authorities praising the potential of this technology in their respective countries digital future.

Blockchain technology has gained independent credibility over and above its application in cryptocurrency. The opportunities are endless as the emerging enterprise sector continues to draw plaudits. So far, this technology has grown in spite of regulatory infrastructure rather than because of it. A suitable regulatory climate is essential for widespread adoption.

This is how Jason Lee, Vice President of NEM Foundation, describes the industrys evolution:

2017 was the year of the blockchain craze. In 2018, we hit the brakes towards the end of the year. For 2019 and the start of 2020, Don Tapscott at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting reports says that the blockchain revolution ground to a halt. This is because not all initiatives are going past the proof of concept stage just as blockchain regulation shapes progressively as it moves forward in the right direction. In 2020, real use case projects are starting to shape up and will play a crucial role.

Therefore, industry leaders and enthusiasts at large are eagerly following regulator sentiment. Themes like consumer data protection and harnessing tech will be constant in these discussions. What is going to be the major themes around blockchain regulation in 2020?

Anonymity and privacy were defining aspects of the decentralized blockchain projects. This sector went mostly unchecked until blockchain platforms became increasingly popular.

Last year, the release of the Libra project whitepaper by Facebook brought these issues to the fore. Specifically, concerns about blockchain enterprises, including cloud services and handling customer data gave regulators an opening to legislate on such platforms. Blockchain enterprise will continue to draw unprecedented legislative scrutiny in 2020.

In late 2018, the US Department of Homeland Security started scrutinizing privacy tokens that shield user information. Similarly, G20 countries issued regulations in June 2019 for exchanges to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements. In February 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) implemented additional guidelines specifically for blockchain companies.

Chinese regulators claimed that these measures are aimed at settings the standard for blockchain development in the country. In the US, the Blockchain Promotion Act of 2019 focuses on finding potential applications for the distributed ledger and opportunities through which government agencies can explore and incorporate the technology. 2020 is sure to bring more scrutiny and legislation on this premise.

Many countries initially took a position of ignorance about cryptocurrencies. However, as bitcoin took a larger-than-life profile after the monster rally in 2017, this position was no longer tenable. The only reason that blockchain experienced the crypto winter was due to being unregulated rather than the breakdown by governments.

The unchecked printing of money before and after the financial crisis of 2008 by the Central Bank led to some people becoming disillusioned about centralized financial systems. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies offered an alternative to these people. As with any power structure, the entities in charge will not relinquish power with ease.

China took drastic measures against trading cryptocurrencies in 2017. Last year, India went even further and completely banned non-sovereign cryptocurrencies. The fundamental aspect of decentralization is an existential threat to the ability of major central banks to control monetary policy.

Even without expressly stating this position, the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. decided to classify coins like Telegram Open Network (TON) as securities to regulate their rise. Regulators in the U.S. see blockchain currencies and commerce as an issue that needs to be addressed.

As 2020 begins, some countries are looking at digital currencies as an opportunity rather than a threat. China astonished the world last year when the Peoples Bank of China announced that it was researching on a national digital currency. Such a development could trigger an arms race of sorts between nations that want to be the first to innovate in this space.

China has openly embraced blockchain technology. President XI Jinping gave a ringing endorsement to the power of this sector in October 2019. During his speech, Jinping said blockchain is an important breakthrough in independent innovation of core technologies and will help China gain an edge in the theoretical, innovative and industrial aspects of this emerging field.

While this announcement came as a surprise, it is a well-calculated and probably necessary move on the part of Chinas government.

NEMs Lee sees the big picture in understanding why China is suddenly keen on blockchain optimization. Embracing blockchain was a smart move by President Xi Jinping; policymakers are starting to realize the benefits of decentralization, he says. Blockchain is an enormous cost saver for many industries, and not only is it more resilient to hacks, [but] it also does not bind you to a specific platform, which makes it the ideal solution for multi-vendor cooperation.

Lee states that the Peoples Bank of China is almost ready to launch a sovereign digital yuan with a global use case. President Xi urges China to seize the opportunity to accelerate the nations innovation. Enterprise blockchain can potentially see a clear pathway of growth in China as they ride the coattails of excitement, he says.

It will be interesting to see what direction Chinas regulations take. This jurisdiction is particularly interesting for enterprise blockchains that major on anonymity. China is obviously keen on being a leader in the blockchain space. On the flip side, China ordinarily wants to have a level of control over tech platforms in the country, which is the antithesis of fully anonymous platforms. What will the future look like for enterprise blockchains in China?

But even before China formally embraced blockchain technology, other states were already active in the space. An example is Singapore, which has established itself as a regional hub for blockchain and crypto platforms.

Startups like NEM have found a suitable environment in the city-state in a quest to transform the industry. The Singapore-based NEM offers businesses a quick and secure way to deploy blockchain in their operations. The blockchain is built from the ground up and focuses on solving real-world needs on a global scale with high performance, customization, and security.

Enterprises can utilize NEMs powerful API interface with any programming language for secure transactions and impeccable record keeping.

Accordingly, developers and enterprises have an efficient hub to innovate and work. Permissioned private blockchains ensure trailblazing transaction rates for internal ledgers.

The acceleration in regulation is favorable for platforms with proven use cases and reliable track records. Enterprise blockchain platforms that maximize the impact of blockchain by facilitating developers and commerce are first in line.

It will be harder for individuals to pull off new blockchain projectsat least anything that would be regulated and gain widespread acceptance, Lee says. Regulations will raise the bar, and while that serves to protect the users, it will make innovation more challenging. But regulators that develop policies for flourishing will attract the opportunity. Blockchain platforms that would help the developers with compliance have the highest chance of gaining traction in such environments.

Regulations are taking a more facilitative approach rather than being primarily restrictive. Governments now appreciate the power of blockchain technology better because of its proven capabilities and efficiency.

Lee thinks that industry leaders should embrace and be leading voices in shaping regulations. Enterprise blockchainslike tech in generalhave to learn that regulation is not something they should avoid, break or fight; they should play along, and that will even lead to better products for their customers, he says.

The possible unveiling of Chinas national digital currency can be a real game-changer, especially for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies that have been pegged to a fiat counterpart. It will be interesting to see whether other countries follow Chinas lead. Given the disruption that blockchain is already causing through sectors like fintech, other developed countries will be monitoring Chinas moves closely because of the potential overhaul blockchain can bring to their financial systems.

The bottom line is that blockchain and cryptocurrencies have the tag of opportunity rather than a threat. Countries that take the initiative to develop a suitable regulatory framework will likely be leaders in the blockchain space.

Andrey Sergeenkov is the founder ofBTC Peers

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How blockchain regulations will change in 2020 - TechTalks

Hyperledger’s Behlendorf on embracing Ethereum, why enterprise blockchain will be permissioned indefinitely – Ledger Insights

This is the first part of an extensive interview with Hyperledger Director Brian Behlendorf in advance of the Hyperledger Global Forum which takes place in Phoenix USA on March 3-6. Register by February 18th to get the discounted rates. This code will provide a 20% discount for individual and corporate, non-member registration: HGFLEDGER20

Thejourney started with a 2016 visit to Shanghai

Behlendorf: I guess the kind of biggest thing that came in last year was Hyperledger Besu, and one of my first trips as the leader of this project was to China in 2016 to the second Ethereum Devcon in Shanghai. Mainly I wanted to go because I wanted to learn more about Ethereum. And I actually had met Vitalik and Bo Shen when they did their original ICO fundraise for this a year earlier.

Butreally, I wanted to see what the developer community was like aroundit and be super sharp about where we were going to positionHyperledger when it came to permissioned versus permissionlessblockchains.

Becausecertainly at the time, and even to a large extent today, thetechnology worlds behind public and permissioned are very differentand very different consensus mechanisms; very different algorithms;communities of developers with very different ideas about use casesand that sort of thing.

Aspectrum from permissioned to public

Butwhat became clear to me while there, was that it was eventually goingto be more of a spectrum. That as permissioned blockchains gotlarger, they would probably need to inherit and learn from theexperiences and maybe even adopt some of the algorithms that thepublic ledger communities were starting to pioneer.

Notso much around proof of work. I think theres still a lot ofskepticism in the enterprise space around that, if only for theenergy load, that sort of thing. And not so much for the DAOdistributed autonomous organization kind of automated robotization ofmanagement kind of ideas.

But partly for how do you do these things really at scale? And so I felt it was important to have an olive branch out to that community. And make sure that as the permissioned side of the blockchain world grew in acceptance and deployment, that we could evolve Hyperledger to a point where it could serve as a bridge across the spectrum.

Iwas still pretty adamant I did not want Hyperledger to be running amain net or a token. I told people that youll never see a hypercoin. I still believe that. And thereby avoid the minting money outof thin air kind of thing.

ConsenSyswas part of original 2015 Hyperledger cohort

LikeI said, it was important to be close to the technology, and thatmeant being close to ConsenSys. ConsenSys was one of the companieswhich was in the initial cohort ofcompaniesinvolved with Hyperledger at the announcement in 2015, and they werearound for a year. They kind of went off and focused on publicblockchains and the ICO market for a while.

Butstarting about two years ago, they cameback around and realized the enterprise space was going to beimportant to them. And prior to last year, one project came in calledBurrow, which was a tiny piece of Ethereum technology, as well as arelationship with the EnterpriseEthereum Alliance.

Sowhen ConsenSys said: Hey, weve been building this alternativestack for Ethereum enterprise technologies that could run both publicmain net Ethereum, as well as permissioned blockchains, and werebuilding it to be Apache licensed, it felt like ready-made forHyperledger.

Soa lot of diplomacy, (we had) a lot of conversations with engineersabout how open source works, but also how Hyperledgers communityworks, through a lot of conversations with the existing Hyperledgercommunity leaders. We brought in Besuand had a very frank and public conversation about how all of thisshould work. And that led to the project being accepted. And now itsin.

Theroyal flush of enterprise blockchain approaches

Imnot going to say that were done adding new frameworks. But the sixthat we have now represent a pretty royal flush of all the differentkinds of approaches I think you could take to building enterpriseblockchains.

Fabric,which is very much like the granddaddy of the project, it just hit2.0. You saw the announcementof that. Its still the most widely deployed enterprise blockchainplatform out there. Very flexible, very much an operating system,very generalizable.

Andthen, weve got the one focused on identity (Indy).Youve got the one focused on digital assets, Iroha.The one focused on being a bridge to public and private being Besu.And then Sawtoothwhich is still a more experimental platform. Those six (includingBurrow),I dont know if theres room for a seventh, to be honest.

Thecommunity will decide

Thegood news is its not up to me. Its really up to the community.

The community had to be convinced there is room for Besu, as a number six. I would say we might even consider seeing consolidation before we see expansion of that set, but anythings possible.

Itshard for me to say that theres a major missing approach to buildingdistributed ledger now inside Hyperledger.

AnotherEthereum link Hyperledger Avalon

Wevehad a few other projects come in recently, such as HyperledgerAvalon, which is the main other one that Ill highlight. Avalonis an implementation, actually again its Ethereum related because itis implementing a specification that came out of the EnterpriseEthereum Alliance around what they call the TrustedCompute Framework.

Itsa generalizable way of trying to describe privacy on blockchains,whether thats implemented through secure enclaves, like Intelschips or through zero-knowledge systems. And in doing that it mightbe a way for us to bring that better balance between confidentialityand auditability, which is the whole point of using blockchainsanyways. If you want confidential, dont put it on a blockchain,right?

Butwhat we also want is the ability to, you know, track spending, theability to track a diamond as it goes through the supply chainwithout revealing every intermediarys complete business flows.

Soproject Avalon is really about moving us further along those lines asa whole community. Its more of a library. Its more of a set ofconcepts and tools right now. But I hope that well start to see thefirst deployment of that into at least pilot environments this year.

Q:Can you clarify your relationship with the Enterprise EthereumAlliance (EEA)? Because as an outsider you look like you have moreand more overlap.

SoI see some pretty sharp distinctions. One is, and this is true in alot of other technology domains, its really, really good to have astandards body in a domain separate from the leading open sourceproject in a domain or from the open source projects in a domain.

Thekinds of stakeholders you want to pull together around a standard.The kinds of IP processes you want to manage in the development of astandard. The fact that (for) a standard, once you eventually set it,it (should) not really be changed all that often. So theres a lot ofpressure when you publish it to make sure youve gotten it exactlyright.

Whereaswith software these days, you know, being agile and publishingupdates frequently and continuing to refine and add features, thatsort of thing is important.

Allof these lead to very different collaboration cultures and differentorganizational structures, even different agreements between theparticipants. And so weve always said that Hyperledger is not astandards body. And its important for somebody else out there to bedoing that kind of work.

Ifnot the EEA then another standards body

Soif the EEA hadnt come along, I would expect that you would have seensome other type of enterprise blockchain standards alliance comealong that perhaps wasnt directly focused on Ethereum. Andobviously, theres standards efforts at ISO and the identity relatedstandards work and a couple of other works, and all that iscompletely compatible with Hyperledger.

Itsnice for the development teams at Hyperledger to have the choice ofwhich standards to implement, how quickly, and potentially even comeup with new de facto standards that could eventually get proposedupstream to somebody elses standards body.

Sothats going to be a pretty sharp distinction between us and the EEA.And thats borne fruit for us in, for example, project Avalon.Hyperledger being able to now take this standard defined elsewhereand build implementations of it. So thats something that I think isimportant to keep in mind. And its always good to know where theboundaries are in any relationship like this. Thats just kept itvery productive.

Q:Do you have any views on the path of some applications moving ontopublic?

Ithink its inevitable that there will be some applications running onthe public ledger networks. DeFi seems to be the kind of thing takingoff there. But I think the vast majority of transactions for ageneration at least, and I dont see any reason why this changesafter the generation frankly, will take place on permissionedblockchains.

Thereasons for that include a blockchain use case will probably define acertain jurisdictional kind of coverage. This blockchain is governedby the laws of country X or GDPR or something like that. And often,those regulations will have some sort of data residency requirements,and privacy requirements that will be really hard to enforce if youdont have the ability to bind all the different participants with acopy of the dataset to a set of agreements.

Hopefully,you can use smart contracts and others to provide a lot ofconfidentiality. But you know, if you and I have some sort ofbusiness arrangement and you end up with a copy of data, theres nosmart contract in the world that can delete that data out of yourhands if I wished it.

Therehas to be, in many cases, a contractual relationship between partiesthat describes the use of that data no matter how thoroughly weveencrypted it on whatever blockchain were using. And so for mostparticipants, most people, theyll want that kind of agreement boundinto the network.

Permissionedbut more decentralized

Nowthe thing that permissioned networks need to do is themselves be moredecentralized than many of the ones that you see today. I think, manyof these networks that have launched, theyre still somewhat in theirearly stages, where it makes sense to have one technology partner tohelp bootstrap to get everyone on board and push it forward.

Butmy take is, as soon as theyre in production, you should be open toadding nodes to that network, not only from other end users. If itsa banking network from other banks, that sort of thing if theyqualify and are able to sign whatever participation agreement isrequired. But also from other technology providers, from other cloudproviders or from nodes that are hosted by the end users themselves.

Ithink if you do that, and then I think if you also make it easy forsmall and midsize businesses to either participate as kind of fullyvested citizens on a blockchain, able to submit transactions, reviewtransactions, confirm the validity of transactions. Or do thatthrough an intermediary of some sort, with the choice of who to trustin doing that. If you make it easy for small, midsize businesses tojoin these blockchains, then that basically erases the advantage ofdoing some of these things as a public blockchain, which isaccessibility.

Accessibilityand blurry lines between permissioned and public

Arguablythats the main reason why advocates of public blockchains forenterprise use cases are advocates. They say its because then youdont have to ask anybody for permission. You just jump on and startengaging. I have no doubt that even enterprise stuff done on publicchains will still implement access control, or KYC (know yourcustomer) or some other type of criteria threshold in order toparticipate.

Andso I think this is why Im saying that the line between permissionedand public will get awfully blurry. I do think that the vast majorityof transactions will be taking place on permissioned blockchainsindefinitely. Just because thats an architectural model that mosttechnologists and most companies are going to find more familiar.

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Hyperledger's Behlendorf on embracing Ethereum, why enterprise blockchain will be permissioned indefinitely - Ledger Insights