Xuperchain by Baidu, the Digital Yuan, and Blockchain 3.0 – Market Realist

Posted on by

Chinese Internet giant Baidu (BIDU) has successfully launched a public beta version of Xuperchain (or Superchain). Its the first of its kind: a cryptocurrency that operates on a centralized network. According to a publication on The Block Crypto, Xuperchain will use parallel chain technology to simplify smart contract processing. Parallel chain technology is an upgrade from the currently used blockchain version 2.0. The Block Crypto claims that this technology will make it easier for developers to create and deploy dedicated, function-based smart contracts.

Xuperchain complies with the Chinese regulatory framework for digital currencies and holds a lot of potential, especially for enterprise solutions. Baidus blockchain-as-a-service offering could see a boost with Xuperchains release. Baidus customers can deploy specifically designed apps using the companys blockchain services without the need to build their own dedicated blockchain network. The idea is similar to using cloud infrastructure services from a specialized cloud service provider to store enterprise data online. Since a business can utilize the functionality of Xuperchain without creating a whole network, it makes Baidus blockchain services lucrative as well as cost effective. Currently, Baidu has priced Xuperchain at 1 Chinese yuan, which is roughly $0.15.

It looks like China has finally taken the lead in terms of blockchain technology. A post on Bitrates stated that Baidus Xuperchain release is a breakthrough solution for blockchain 3.0. The design of the Xuperchain network addresses the problem of computing, storage, and scalability in blockchain networks. Blockchain relies on miners to record and encrypt transactions. Since it works on a decentralized topology, the network is scalable upward.

Typically, all blockchain networks are as fast as the weakest node in the system. At times, this leads to problems when trying to scale up a network. But in the case of Xuperchain, master nodes deploy a cores idle computing power to process parallel transactions. This design overcomes any latency issues and makes the Xuperchain network function much faster. According to Cointelegraph, the presence of these master nodes will make crypto mining more energy efficient.

According to The Block Crypto, the white papers for Xuperchain were made public in May 2018. The Xuperchain website claims that since 2018, Xuperchain has processed over 450 million transactions and houses approximately 3.5 million users. In terms of transaction processing speed, Xuperchain is 23x faster than Ethereum. While Ethereum is capable of executing 15 transactions per second, Xuperchain claims a peak concurrency of 353 transactions per second. A publication by Coindesk says that Baidu holds over 50 patents related to Xuperchain and the entire ownership of Xuperchains intellectual properties.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Chinese President Xi Jinping was a staunch advocate of blockchain technology. Even though the technology that powers Bitcoin is in demand, a CNBC publication claims that trading in cryptocurrency is banned in China. In my opinion, one of the reasons for Xis tepid outlook for Bitcoin and other cryptos is the decentralized nature of the virtual currencies. Theres a genuine threat that a peer-to-peer transactional network could create a parallel economy. This raises the question of whether the Chinese leader would accept a state-regulated cryptocurrency. The launch of Xuperchain is the obvious answer.

In August 2019, Forbes reported that China planned to unveil a new virtual currency in place of its domestic currency, the yuan. But the new virtual currency would be a centralized one, unlike all other cryptos. The Peoples Bank of China would regulate and monitor the supply of the digital yuan. Another publication on Forbes claimed that the Chinese central bank would work with seven key institutions to circulate the digital yuan. These institutions will regulate the supply in the Chinese economy. Four of these institutions are banksnamely the China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China, and the Agricultural Bank of China. The other three institutions are Chinese tech companies Alibaba (BABA), Tencent (TCEHY), and UnionPay.

Both Alibaba and Tencent are gearing up to improve their blockchain service offerings. In November last year, SCMP reported that Ant Financial was testing blockchain services for small and medium enterprises. Ant Financial was formerly known as Alipay, Alibaba Groups mobile payment platform. On the other hand, Tencent is putting together a cryptocurrency research team. A post in Coindesk hints that the research team will focus on how to use digital currencies in its payments platform.

The US is more focused on setting the ground rules for the crypto space. US Congress plans to define digital assets in the draft bill of the Cryptocurrency Act of 2020. In September 2019, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the launch of Bakkt, the first regulated exchange for Bitcoin futures.

In comparison, China is making a lot of progress when it comes to applying blockchain solutions. Coindesk reported a month ago about a bond issuance by the Bank of China using blockchain tech. The two-year bond carries a coupon of 3.25% and has raised 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion). Now, the Xuperchain announcement could establish Baidu as one of the market leaders in blockchain-as-a-service. Other Chinese tech companies Alibaba and Tencent are also catching up.

Read the original:

Xuperchain by Baidu, the Digital Yuan, and Blockchain 3.0 - Market Realist

Whatever happened to blockchain? – MoneyWeek

Posted on by

Chinas Xi Jinping deems blockchain a core technology

Not long ago investors were getting hyped up about blockchain. Then they dropped it. But they should take another look, says Ben Judge.

Just a few years ago, blockchain also called digital ledger technology (DLT) was the next big thing. It was going to transform every facet of our lives, including the entire global payment system; back-end office systems; and supply chains from beginning to end. The hype was immense. Every spivvy entrepreneur and their dog set up a company that somehow had its value inflated by some version or other of blockchain. Some didnt even bother coming up with a blockchain business. They just slotted blockchain into their name and watched the share price shoot up. The Long Island Iced Tea Corp., which notoriously became the Long Blockchain Corp., immediately enjoyed a share price surge of 458%.

At its simplest, blockchain is a ledger: a way of storing and manipulating information, like a spreadsheet or database. Crucially, though, where a normal database is a single, centrally controlled entity, a blockchain is a public distributed ledger. Each computer that has access to the chain has its own copy. It is literally a chain of blocks of information. As a new piece of information is added to the ledger, it creates a new block in the chain.

The block stores the information, but also who added the information and who has access to it. Once a block has been added and verified, it is given a hash a unique, immutable code that identifies that transaction. You cannot go back and change any of the information stored. Any changes are recorded as new blocks in the chain with a record of who has done what.

Another unique feature of blockchain is its ability to use smart contracts. A smart contract is computer code stored on the chain that can execute transactions between parties once certain conditions have been met: for example, to automatically transfer the ownership of property once funds have cleared; to release funds to a supplier once goods are confirmed as having arrived; or to impose financial penalties if certain conditions are not met. All of this is permissionless it can be done with no need for someone to provide access. It is all coded into the blockchain when the agreement is initially drawn up. And it is this security, and the fact that all parties have access to the information so that there is no need for a middleman, that makes blockchains so useful.

In situations where multiple parties need to access and update data in the knowledge that it is secure and cannot be tampered with, and where intermediaries can be eliminated, a blockchain system is an ideal solution, according to IBM, which employs more than 1,000 people on blockchain products. It is making its blockchain platform available to other organisations that want to create their own versions.

The blockchain hype of recent years went hand in hand with the meteoric rise of bitcoin, whose price peaked at almost $20,000 this time two years ago only to come crashing down in the subsequent months. Blockchain was, after all, created to track ownership and transactions of the digital currency.

Now, however, it all seems to have gone quiet. Many of the promised fabulous enhancements to our lives have yet to happen. Other digital currencies launched to cash in on blockchain have withered away. People are now asking whether blockchain was all just a load of hype. Is that true?

Blockchain is still here and is slowly but surely gaining ground rather than disrupting everything in one fell swoop. Big business is quietly adopting this technology to do the things its good at: settling transactions, recording ownership and verifying identities, for example. It may not be a purists idea of what blockchain should be a public, permissionless ledger open to all. Instead, what we are seeing are private, permissioned blockchains. That means that, unlike public blockchains such as bitcoin, only certain users with the appropriate privileges can add blocks to the chain.

The technology is following the classic example of hype cycle first observed by research firm Gartner. It consists of five key phases. A new technology is developed and enters the trigger phase. Publicity explodes and everyone wants a piece of the action; the cycle enters the peak of inflated expectations. That was the bitcoin peak that prompted chancers to launch new cryptocurrencies. Then, when the technology doesnt seem to change everyones lives as promised by the early adopters, we enter the trough of disillusionment. Investors lose interest. But then, after a while, people find uses for the new technology and we begin to climb the slope of enlightenment. Then comes the plateau of productivity. With blockchain were just past the trough of disillusionment, having risen over the peak of inflated expectations and were now in the foothills of the slope of enlightenment.

There have been flops. Insurance giant Axa trialled a blockchain-based flight insurance product called Fizzy. It used smart contracts to pay out automatically if your flight was delayed. But just the other week it decided to shelve it. And some projects have had a rather longer gestation than was originally envisaged. The Australian Securities Exchange ASX has been planning to replace its clearing system with a blockchain-based system. It has been in development since 2015; the latest estimate for its deployment is spring 2021. Australia is not the only exchange looking at using DLT. Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York are interested too. As Joshua Oliver noted in the Financial Times a year ago: Worldwide, three quarters of the financial market infrastructure operators surveyed by Nasdaq and Celent are working on DLT pilots or already using DLT.

Enterprise blockchain is now most definitely a thing, having moved from proof of concept to real-world applications. Big business has bought in. Along with IBMs platform, other big enthusiasts include Amazon and Oracle. Amazons clients include management consultants Accenture, AT&T and Guardian Life Insurance. Oracles clients include a Jordanian investment bank using blockchain to facilitate cross-border payments; a healthcare technology company providing a network for healthcare organisations to share data and processes securely; and a brewer tracking its supply chain.

Much of the activity is in financial services. One high-profile trading platform is we.trade, set up by a consortium of big banks including HSBC, Societe Generale and UBS. It allows small and medium-sized businesses to guarantee and process transactions digitally, cutting down on paperwork and speeding up trades.

Another area where DLT is useful is in identity verification. In Canada, Verified.Me is a system that has been developed between government agencies and private companies. Customers of five banks including Royal Bank of Canada and Scotiabank can now verify their identities using blockchain technology.

But it is in supply-chain management that it is really proving itself. Last year, IBM launched its Food Trust platform, a blockchain-based system for tracking the supply chain of food. It was originally trialled by Walmart, but is now being used commercially by, among others, Nestl, Carrefour, and Unilever, says Forbes. Walmart Canada has now developed its own system with DLT Labs, a Canadian blockchain developer, for tracking deliveries, verifying transactions and automating payments among suppliers to its 400 retail stores. Shipping giant Maersk developed the TradeLens supply chain platform with IBM, to track cargo around the world. Maersk now wants to monetise the platform and it has recently been joined by Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express of Singapore.

But perhaps the most fervent adopter of blockchain technology recently is China. President Xi Jinping recently praised blockchain as a core technology and called for more support and investment. Chinas tech-focused shares surged. Over 500 new projects have been registered with the Cyberspace Administration of China. Chinas big tech companies are involved, says Jane Cai in the South China Morning Post, and there are dozens of government-led initiatives and schemes, in areas ranging from communications to land development.

It is somewhat ironic given the technologys libertarian origins. China is now pushing toward global blockchain dominance, says Kevin Werbach in Wired. Thats something that should get the rest of the world and especially the US worried, says Biser Dimitrov on Forbes.com. Having a superior blockchain technology will give China an enormous trading opportunity with the emerging technology markets. And then theres the spectre of a digital renminbi. A digital currency controlled by the Peoples Bank of China has the potential to usurp the dollar as a global currency.

While blockchain in the West is mainly business-driven, China is adopting it to strengthen its grip on its population. Mu Rongping, director of the innovation and development research centre at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Cai that The potential is huge for the use of new technologies, such as in areas of public security, public transport, crime investigation and anti-corruption campaigns Blockchain could open a new chapter on the integration of governance and technology. Rather than fulfilling its original imperative of shifting power away from centralised authority, it could actually help Chinas government cement it.

Still, what is clear is that, for good or ill, blockchain is no longer the brash shouty new kid on the block; its maturing. Slowly but surely distributed ledger technology is integrating itself with public and private systems. Its here to stay.

Originally posted here:

Whatever happened to blockchain? - MoneyWeek

Application of Blockchain in Southeast Asian Countries: Blockchain Market is Projected to Grow at a CAGR of 81% Globally, 2018-2023 -…

Posted on by

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "The Application of Blockchain in Southeast Asian Countries, Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global blockchain market is growing very fast and it is forecast that its market size will reach US$23.3 billion by 2023, representing a CAGR of 81% over the period from 2018 to 2023.

Blockchain, which is a decentralized digital database, supports participants when they confirm their transactions without the need for a central authority to approve/accept the transaction. Although this technology has been recognized mainly by digital currencies such as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it has several other applications in different aspects of life including in digital payments and e-wallets (which is supported by fintech; blockchain is one of the technologies used in fintech), agriculture, logistics, healthcare, real estate, cloud storage, education, public transportation, pharma, food and beverage, etc. Countries around the world including those in Southeast Asia are improving and updating their regulatory frameworks to provide a suitable and attractive environment for blockchain companies to keep pace with the fast-growing global blockchain market and reap the benefits of this technology.

The global fintech market also showed a significant increase in 2018, reflecting greater application of blockchain in financial services around the world. It is also predicted that the global fintech market will grow faster and its future market value looks promising. In countries covered in this study (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) the future fintech market is forecast to be optimistic and promising considering the transaction values in each country.

Countries in Southeast Asia are also trying to improve their regulatory environment to gain more benefits from different applications of blockchain technology.

Key Issues Addressed

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Overview

3. Introduction to Blockchain

4. Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Regulations and Applications in Malaysia

5. Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Regulations and Applications in Singapore

6. Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Regulations and Applications in Thailand

7. Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Regulations and Applications in Vietnam

8. The Future of Blockchain

9. Growth Opportunities and Companies to Action

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/w6svd0

See the original post:

Application of Blockchain in Southeast Asian Countries: Blockchain Market is Projected to Grow at a CAGR of 81% Globally, 2018-2023 -...

Will 2020 be the year blockchain overcomes its hype? – World Economic Forum

Posted on by

Another year has rolled on by, and while many things in the blockchain space have changed, a lot remains the same. 2019 saw a continued cooling of indiscriminate funding and a renewed focus on quality over hype. In addition, weve seen the acknowledgement by some big names, including Facebook and the other Libra Association members, and even a few central banks, that blockchain technology, and digital currency, are truly exciting innovations that just need a bit more experimentation to stick.

At the World Economic Forum, were keen to ensure that greater blockchain adoption, which we deem inevitable, happens in ways that support inclusion and avoid replicating the consolidation of power that currently exists, particularly in the financial system. In addition, we remain focused on rationalizing this technology across sectors and publicizing our learnings in an effort to guide the public sector and civil society knowledge, funding, and robust experiments.

Image: Image: Statista

Last year, we saw less of established actors pitching competitors on unilateral projects. Instead, we saw either totally internal initiatives or creative attempts at consortium building (for example, Food Trust, Tradelens, INATBA, Libra), with varying degrees of success. Companies are waking up to the idea that to go far, they ought to go together. (As an example, the Forum recently launched a consortium to explore the use of blockchain technology in the mining and metals sector, where a collaborative approach would have been hard to imagine even a few years ago).

We expect to see a similar collaborative approach from the public sector as 2020 progresses, and in fact, the Forum has already seen an increased willingness on the part of public sector agencies to share learnings and challenges. (An example is our Central Banks Digital Currency project, which has brought together more than 45 Central Banks to explore parameters for successful deployment of a CBDC. Our CBDC Policymaker Toolkit, co-created with over 45 Central Banks, will launch in Davos at our Annual Meeting.)

The term governance used to cause immediate recoil among even blockchain enthusiasts. But 2019 saw a gradual recognition (or perhaps resignation) that governance is a feature that drives adoption.

Of course, as Facebook learned, the promise or potential for good governance is not enough; the devil is in the details, and 2019 saw laypeople diving deep into the specifics of operations, business models, and legal structures in an effort to assess risk. That was also reflected in regulators investigations in the 2017-2018 slate of ICOs, exemplifying the importance of specifics (despite the lack of clarity that continues to cloud the regulatory space globally).

At the Forum, were focused on bringing together stakeholders to pilot policy projects focused on social impact. The social impact space continues in an ongoing, and frustrating, attempt to remedy complex societal problems with technical solutions. Our view, which is informed by the previous generation of tech experimentation, is that technology alone simply cannot adequately address social challenges, and that accompanying policy is essential to ensure that a blockchain, or really any technology, is deployed in a way that addresses its limitations.

Celo, a payments startup, is a good example of a team that understands cultural and social realities and its baking that learning into its user experience. Another example is AZA Group (aka Bitpesa), with its deep knowledge of frontier markets, particularly in Africa.

In a similar vein, our government transparency project, which focuses on aligning civic engagement with a blockchain deployment designed to reduce corruption in public procurement, will pilot in Colombia in early 2020 and looks to develop local talent needed to maintain deployment over time and avoid vendor dependency.

We are seeing increased understanding that blockchain technology is not exempt from the need for robust understanding of context. This is a welcome change from the insanity of 2018, when merely adding the word blockchain to a pitch was enough to claim authenticity.

Of course, there is still a long way to go. The reality is that the most transformative applications of blockchain technology are arguably best-suited to the most challenging contexts (for example, banking the unbanked is a deeply complex problem that cant be solved by simply rolling out a token), and we are still a long way from realizing the true potential of this technology in the social impact space.

This year, we expect to see increased experimentation with hybrid blockchain models, both in the financial sector (for example, decentralized finance or DeFi and synthetic CBDCs) and the public sector (increased use of smart contracts). These are a great way to increase comfort with the technology.

We are not close to realizing the promise of truly decentralized systems, but the space continues to evolve in exciting new ways, and its just a matter of time before something huge gains traction.

This article originally appeared on CoinDesk.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

Written by

Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology, World Economic Forum

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

Read the original:

Will 2020 be the year blockchain overcomes its hype? - World Economic Forum

Zcoin RAP Enhances Wallet Address Privacy on the Blockchain – AiThority

Posted on by

Zcoin, a privacy focused cryptocurrency is set to be the first cryptocurrency project to release Receiver Address Privacy (RAP) on a desktop wallet. RAP is an implementation ofReusable Payment Codes (BIP47)originally proposed byJustus Ranvier, which provides greater privacy by allowing users to share a single permanent address publicly without leakage of privacy.

Traditionally, when a user shared an address out, anyone can look up that address on the blockchain and see its entire history which is a real privacy problem that inhibits real world adoption especially in businesses where they may not want to reveal who their customers are, how much theyre receiving and who their suppliers are.

Read More: Technology Watch: Dont Miss These CES 2020 Themes And Sessions

RAP addresses allow for a single permanent address to be shared publicly without outsiders being able to tell when it has received payments. This privacy is also further enhanced as Zcoins RAP implementation allows users to send Zcoins Sigma transactions to RAP addresses which allows users to hide the sender of the funds.

RAP also offers several practical benefits and advantages over stealth addresses in that payments to it are indistinguishable from other payments making it harder to censor and the scheme can be supported by light wallets.

RAP or BIP47 is a very creative solution to the address reuse problem and it works great together with Zcoins Sigma privacy protocol offering a complete solution for both sender and receiver privacy, saidReuben Yap, Project Steward of Zcoin. Thus far we have only seen BIP47 being implemented in a handful of mobile wallets such as Samourai, Rune and Billions. Writing BIP47 almost from scratch in C++ allows not only Zcoin to benefit but any cryptocurrency using a Bitcoin core can also adapt the work. We are happy to contribute to the space in improving privacy and seeing greater adoption of BIP47.

Read More: Allied Wallet China and Founder Andy Khawaja Plan to Implement Blockchain Technology in 2020

The Zcoin core team worked together with Arcadia a blockchain software development company with a focus on privacy preserving technologies to implement RAP.

We made a lot of informed choices when implementing BIP47 on Zcoin. Forexample,we went with the traditional notification transaction style on the blockchain for notifications versus WebRTC or BitMessage to not accidentally introduce potential points of network level leakage, said Rasikh Morani, CTO and co-founder of Arcadia.

RAP is fully implemented and undergoingcode reviewand is set to go live on Zcoins network in about a month.

Read More: What is Chinas Password Law and What it Means for the Blockchain Industry?

Read more here:

Zcoin RAP Enhances Wallet Address Privacy on the Blockchain - AiThority

Propy trials blockchain for land registry in Vermont – Ledger Insights

Posted on by

Yesterday, it was announced that startup Propy and the U.S. city of South Burlington completed a blockchain trial for real estate transactions. Propy implemented its blockchain registry system for six weeks in parallel to the city Land Recorders office.

Property deeds filed with the U.S. Land Recorders office were also fed into Propys title registry software. While Propy is best known for providing real estate transaction management software for brokers and agents, it also has a title registry solution for government departments, which was the subject of the South Burlington trial.

Real estate titles registered using Propys solution include an address on the public Ethereum blockchain.

The companys core software for brokers and agents enables the listing of properties, completion of documentation and digital payments, with the facility to record ownership on the blockchain registry.

The broker/agent solution helps to prevent wire fraud that can happen if the recipients bank details are intercepted when sent via email. Additionally, it provides real-time transaction monitoring and integrates DocuSign, a digital solution for signing agreements.

Coming back to the land registry trial, one of the reasons it is in Vermont is the 2018 blockchain legislation passed in the State in which Propy played a prominent role. While the bill was quite broad, it included a clause which recommends legislation to support the possible use of blockchain technology for land records.

At the time of the signing of the new law, Vermont Governor Phil Scott credited Propy and said the bill encouraged companies to pilot applications of blockchain, like launching a program here in South Burlington, to reduce both the cost and complexity of recording real estate transactions.

Vermont-based non-profit Distributed Ledger Governance Association (DLGA) played an important part in securing Propys place at the table.

Founded in 2016, Propy raised $15.5 million via an initial coin offering. More recently, Second Century Ventures, the venture capital arm of the U.S. National Association of Realtors invested an undisclosed amount in the company, according to Crunchbase. The firm boasts real estate firms Coldwell Banker and Century 21 as clients.

Meanwhile, Propy entered a partnership with Escrow Agent Japan (EAJ) last year to introduce its blockchain platform in the Japanese real estate market.

Among other similar initiatives, The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), has launched a blockchain pilot for property registry in South Africa. The Spanish Association of Registrars is working on a registry for tourist rentals. Projects are also active in the UAE, Mexico and the U.K.

View original post here:

Propy trials blockchain for land registry in Vermont - Ledger Insights

4 limitations of blockchain technology every imaging researcher should know – AI in Healthcare

Posted on by

Blockchain technology had its beginnings in the financial sector and is most commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, but it is also beginning to emerge as a significant player in the healthcare industry. A recent study published in the Journal of Digital Imaging explored the history of blockchain and examined its potential impact on the future of medical imaging technology.

Specifically within medical imaging, blockchain use cases include image sharing (including patient-driven/centered ownership of images), teleradiology, research, and machine learning/artificial intelligence applications, wrote authors Morgan P. McBee, MD, Medical University of South Carolina, and Chad Wilcox, MD, University of California Los Angeles. It is more practical to store hashes, metadataor references/links to images within the blockchain as opposed to images themselves as illustrated in one proposed blockchain implementation for sharing of images. This is especially true because of the slow speed and high cost of storing large amounts of data in a public blockchain.

There are, however, four key limitations McBee and Wilcox discussed in their assessment. Any researchers looking to learn more about blockchain should keep these limitations in mind at all times.

More here:

4 limitations of blockchain technology every imaging researcher should know - AI in Healthcare

Version 3.0 of Loyyal Industry-Leading Blockchain Administrative Console – AiThority

Posted on by

Loyyal Product Suite V3.0 Continues Loyyals Commitment to Innovation and Customer-Centered Design Principles.

Loyyal, the industry leader in applying blockchain technologies to enhance loyalty and incentive programs, is proud to unveil version 3.0 of the Loyyal Product Suite, achieving yet another milestone in the platforms performance, security, and features. Already the industry leader, Loyyals continued enhancement of transaction security, scalability, and ease of deployment delivers greater benefits to loyalty program operators than ever before. Among several new features, two significant introductions in this release are the new Administration Console, as well as improved fault-tolerance and recovery.

The new Administration Console provides Operators with a new level of insights into program activity and member behavior. With these new features, Operators are able to query and view individual blockchain transactions within their programs, or the precise activities of their members in ways previously unavailable. This level of observability empowers Operators to more accurately tune their programs for maximum member value and engagement, all while improving program profitability.

Read More: How Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Changing The Future Of Architecture?

Another key set of functionality provided via the Administration Console gives Operators greater security through the management of user accounts and permissions. An Operators organizational roles, as well as access rights and privileges, can now be mirrored in how it manages its blockchain on Loyyal. In addition to easier deployment and ongoing management of the Loyyal Product Suite, the user management features of the Administration Console also serve to help prevent fraud within a programs operations.

Future releases will expand on the Administration Consoles capabilities, including visual management of Smart Contracts, Partner management, and additional customized reporting tools.

With version 3.0, the Loyyal Product Suite has improved redundancy and system recovery from unforeseen network errors or conditions, negating the need for continued monitoring by Operators, and automating the recovery of key Platform functions within milliseconds. Additionally, Loyyals engineers have refactored much of the Platforms underlying API layer for greater performance, while maintaining backward-compatibility with previous releases.

Read More: The Future of Works Most Crucial Component: Artificial Intelligence

It is the needs of our clients and their partners that continue to drive the design and features of the Loyyal Product Suite, said Greg Simon, CEO, and Founder of Loyyal Corporation. Loyalty program needs are somewhat unique among large enterprise applications, and we are absolutely committed to staying ahead of the rest of the industry in meeting the needs of Program Operators. The release of Version 3.0 provides the support and tools needed by even the largest global programs.

Loyyals blockchain-as-a-service and software components combine the core Loyyal Platform APIs, Program Manager, and Event Manager modules, coupled with secure Node hosting for a complete solution. The capacity and performance enhancements, plus the robust data privacy controls of Loyyal Product Suite version 3.0 build upon the success of version 1.0 released in June of last year, which delivered enterprise-grade capabilities and improvements in transaction security, network resiliency, and scalability.

Read More: What is Chinas Password Law and What it Means for the Blockchain Industry?

Read more here:

Version 3.0 of Loyyal Industry-Leading Blockchain Administrative Console - AiThority

These Companies Hope to Shine at Blockchain-focused CES – Cryptonews

Posted on by

Source: Twitter, @CES

The Customer Electronics Show (CES 2020) is already in full swing. And this years event, now being held in Las Vegas and winding up on January 10, will have a special significance for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry following on from themes first explored at CES 2019.

But for many, this will be the year when innovators and industrialists must stop talking about blockchain, and actually start making money from it.

Nowhere is that truer than South Korea where many of the countrys largest conglomerates, banks and business groups spent 2019 talking about how much blockchain-related tech they would be commercializing in 2020. South Korean media outlets such as Fn News have been reporting about some of the companies set to showcase blockchain-related solutions at CES 2020. But not only South Korean companies participate in the event.

Here are some highlights.

Samsungs IT services arm, Samsung SDS, is displaying a blockchain-powered automotive parts management solution, as well as its own mainnet, Nexledger. The company has previously developed interoperability solutions that it claims have already helped bridge the gap for companies and government entities that make use of different blockchain protocols. It is also extremely active in the areas of logistics and shipping.

South Koreas answer to Microsoft has been busy creating a blockchain-powered suite of office solutions, but will also unveil what it says is a comprehensive data management platform for a wide range of certification, including birth certificates, digital identification, education records, employment history and medical records. Interestingly, the same platform also appears to offer blockchain-verified cryptocurrency trading data records. The company will also exhibit details about its own mainnet, as well as smart contract technology.

This startup is affiliated with KAIST, South Koreas biggest tech university, often referred to as East Asias MIT. In fact, ReDWit will be making its CES debut this year, presenting its blockchain solutions at a KAIST booth. These include a blockchain solution designed with academics in mind: one that will allow researchers to make, log and share research notes both online and offline, using a wide range of file formats and devices.

Singapore-based blockchain company Pundi X is using the CES to reintroduce their blockchain-powered smartphone, now called Blok On Blok, or just BoB. The device comes with a special operating system called f(x) or Function X OS. It allows users access to the Function X ecosystem, so that every call, text, or action made online, is decentralized. Each BOB functions as a node, so the more BOBs deployed means a stronger decentralized Function X ecosystem.

This startup company from Taiwan that focuses on applying blockchain technology to retail industry, launched what it calls the world's first all-in-one cryptocurrency retail payment solution built with blockchain hardware wallet - and exhibited it at CES. SecuX Cryptocurrency Retail Payment Solution includes three components: (1) a White-label Mobile App that can add any crypto payment with the existing fiat-currency payment app; (2) a Payment Terminal/Module that can operate without the internet connection; (3) a Hardware Wallet with a military-grade Secure Element chip.

This Silicon Valley startup offers a blockchain-based omnichannel mobile experience through integrating social messaging, mobile commerce, and fintech services. Zocials wants to power the new Blockchain network with its technology called Integrated Blockchain Architecture, which they claim provides a systems approach to solving limitations in scalability, security, and latency.

This Luxembourg-based platform built on a decentralized mutuality-based system aims to enable the next generation of insurance, particularly for the 500 million or more uninsurable smallholder farmers. It does this by allowing farmer-to-farmer risks to be shared in a transparent and cost-efficient manner, and it uses blockchain, satellite earth observation data and index-based risk modeling to accomplish this, their website says.

Chinese KryptoGO is a blockchain search engine that organizes all cross-chain information for usability and readability, the aim being to make blockchain more accessible and to hasten the adoption of crypto. Therefore, they've launched a RegTech (regulatory technology) solution built on top of KryptoGO's data infrastructure that analyzes on-chain data to connect virtual worlds with real-world identities. Furthermore, to make compliance easy, KryptoGO wants to solve the non-interoperability issue of travel rule standards by introducing a FATF/FinCEN compliant regulation kit.

Coming from New York, this startup is exhibiting their blockchain router, with a goal of bringing decentralized internet to every home across the world. The product enables its users to connect to the internet through an encrypted channel from any place in the world, and access regular websites, but also browse through the blockchain-based websites, which are not available otherwise.

The second-largest producer of Bitcoin mining equipment, China-based Canaan, will also be exhibiting their blockchain chips and system solutions products at the CES. It will continue its promotion of the multi-level design development and in-depth application of ASIC super-calculation chips for the multi-disciplinary areas.

The Netherlands-based project has developed a Blockchain-based Transparency Solution to trace products from its source to the finished product, that way giving the consumers full transparency over the entire process by utilizing blockchain and zero-knowledge. Furthermore, it enables sustainability and a circular economy in supply chains. The producers/companies can provide information about their products and their supply chains in a transparent way without risking privacy.

There are a number of blockchain companies and protocols at CES this year presenting their solutions and infrastructure capabilities:

ANote Music is a marketplace for buying and selling Music Rights based in Luxembourg. They want to innovate the current music industry by, among other things introducing it to the blockchain. The team claims that this allows artists, record labels, publishers and songwriters to become financially independent and get funds immediately, which they'd be earning over many years otherwise.

Netherlands-basked Fluidensity is a certified blockchain platform for the tokenization of art and other assets. They offer a complete platform for Security Token Offering, reportedly approved by financial authorities in the EU. Artists and collectors can use its platform to convert the ownership of art into digital certificates, thus collecting, trading, and exposing art in a new way via these tokens. Furthermore, the company says, blockchain makes collecting and trading art secure, transparent, and inclusive.

This product exhibited at CES comes from the U.S. - EmP Fitness is a blockchain-based solution that collects data from fitness apps, wearables, equipment, free weights, group exercises, and more, in order to store it on the blockchain. It gives its users control over that data, can share data anywhere, and earn money.

In this department, we find the U.S.-based Crypto Watches, which is showing off its Blockchain Watch Face brand. Utilizing their patent-pending blockchain technology, the company creates digital collectible smartwatch faces that they claim are compatible with almost every smartwatch out there. Watch Skins, also from the U.S, is a Blockchain Watch Face Marketplace. Their patent-pending technology allows popular brands to sell digital collectible smartwatch faces for almost any smartwatch, says the company. This is done via blockchain to ensure authenticity and scarcity of the licensed watch face.

Watch the latest reports by Block TV.

Finally, just yesterday we've written about another CES participant: 2020 CES Innovation Awards Honoree, Taiwan-based AuthenTrend. They exhibited their new fingerprint enabled crypto wallet, called AT.Wallet. ___

Stay tuned to Cryptonews.com for more CES 2020 blockchain and crypto-related developments!

Read more from the original source:

These Companies Hope to Shine at Blockchain-focused CES - Cryptonews

Global Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Market, 2019-2024 – Funding, Investment, and Pilot Projects Acting as Catalysts of Market Growth -…

Posted on by

Dublin, Jan. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report on the market for blockchain in healthcare provides a market overview, assesses application markets, provides an end user analysis, and evaluates the market for blockchain in healthcare by mode of deployment, application, end user and geography.

The major companies profiled in the report include a detailed introduction, product portfolios and recent developments. The report also includes regulatory aspects, current and developing technologies, market projections and market share.

The report includes:

Key Topics Covered

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights

Chapter 3 Market and Technology Background

Chapter 4 Market Breakdown by Deployment Sector

Chapter 5 Market Breakdown by End User

Chapter 6 Market Breakdown by Application

Chapter 7 Market Breakdown by Region

Chapter 8 Patent Review/New Developments

Chapter 9 Analysis of Market Opportunities

Chapter 10 Company Profiles

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5jwr1t

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Read the original:

Global Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Market, 2019-2024 - Funding, Investment, and Pilot Projects Acting as Catalysts of Market Growth -...

iTRACE adds Android support for blockchain product authentication – Ledger Insights

Posted on by

Today, California-based iTRACE Technologies has launched an Android app for authenticating products etched with its blockchain connected 2DMI mark.

An iPhone app for iTRACE already existed, and with an Android launch, more users can authenticate, track and trace a product. Android holds 74 of the global market share and many devices are cheaper than an iPhone.

iTRACE calls itself a supply chain security, brand protection and product security company, and its app can be branded and customized by businesses for individual applications.

The 2DMI mark is a supply chain security system which uses a laser to make 2D micro marks on any solid surface including stainless steel, diamond, glass and even fabrics. iTRACE hopes to combat grey markets and counterfeiting of products by providing easy and trusted access to provenance data.

The addition of the Android OS version of our app has significantly broadened the number of people that can participate in authentication with their own devices, said iTRACE Founder and CEO Mark Manning. Giving customs officers, investigators and even end consumers the ability to guarantee the authenticity of the products in their hands gives the brands a very powerful tool to engage with their consumers in real-time.

The mobile app also features two-factor authentication (2FA) that can be used to secure existing security systems such as human-readable devices. iTRACE claims to provide better security and damage resistance than QR codes, barcodes and 2D codes, making them ideal for harsher environments.

Last month, Honeywell said it was working with iTRACE to secure its aerospace parts supply chain by recording identification on a blockchain.

Other technologies linked to blockchain for traceability include molecular DNA used by blockchain provenance company Everledger for tagging luxury products. And ScanTrust has a barcoding system which it says is copy proof.

Anti-counterfeiting is a popular application for blockchain technology. Microsoft, ConsenSys and French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH have a blockchain network to trace history and authenticity of luxury goods. Meanwhile, Seagate is working with IBM for a blockchain solution to authenticate the provenance of its hard disks and prevent fraudulent clones.

View original post here:

iTRACE adds Android support for blockchain product authentication - Ledger Insights

World’s First Blockchain-Powered Phone Arrives at CES 2020 – Bitcoinist

Posted on by

CES 2020 is about to open a new decade of consumer electronics inventions, and the star of the show is the worlds first blockchain-powered smartphone.

With the arrival of 2020, the world has officially entered into a new decade, which will undoubtedly bring new technologies and inventions, but also new threats. When it comes to threats online, there is definitely no shortage of them.

Hackers and other cybercriminals seem to be everywhere, with malware, viruses, and alike constantly getting more sophisticated. Meanwhile, the number of internet users around the world is on a constant rise, making more and more people vulnerable to said threats.

This is no secret, either, and some studies suggest that 8 out of 10 internet users feel vulnerable while online, with little to no control over their data. So far, security researchers managed to convince the authorities of the dangers and the reality and severity of these threats, although a few steps that were taken to mitigate these threats have yet to bring any major impact.

This is where blockchain technology, with its decentralized nature and immutability, comes into play, promising a real method of increasing security for the first time in years. However, with the number of mobile users constantly on the rise, there was a major demand and an even bigger lack of blockchain-based smartphones. A few attempts to make them in the past failed due to the lack of awareness, trust, or interest.

This is why Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020 is expected to be a major game-changer, as it will introduce the worlds first blockchain-powered phone, called Blok on Blok (BOB). BOB is a product created by a company Pundi X, headquartered in Singapore, and it acts as its first flagship smartphone product.

The phone was originally known as XPhone, and it was presented during the Bali Blockchain Summit in 2018. After the Summit, the company rebranded and perfected the phone, ensuring the users utmost privacy by developing a new operating system, f(x) OS (Function X OS). The system ensures that every call, text, or other action, are made online, through a decentralized app or browser.

Meanwhile, each BOB phone acts as a node of the network, which eliminates the need for a centralized service provider or carrier. Simply put, the more BOBs there are in the world, the bigger the network, and the stronger the decentralization.

Pundi Xs co-founder and CEO, Zac Cheah, stated that the goal is to ensure that the users data will belong to the users themselves and that the last decade has proven that users need to be more careful with their information.

However, since it will take time for people to get used to the idea of a decentralized network for their phone, BOB will have an option to switch between blockchain mode to more traditional states. This is possible due to the Android 9 Pie OS.

In terms of design, BOB has a retro-futuristic look, and each package will include the MOD assembly kit, including core components and various accessories.

While its default form certainly feels futuristic and sci-fi, users will have the ability to customize its look through 3D printing. Meanwhile, the Function X Foundation plans to invite designers from around the world, and ask them to submit their ideas for the blockchain-powered phone, resulting in 5-10 different MOD designs, in total.

BOB can be pre-ordered today, January 7th, on Indiegogo at 9 am PST. Early birds can expect a discount, while the latest prototype can be seen at the CES 2020 at Sands, Hall G 52501 in Eureka Park in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What do you think about the new BOB smartphone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Youtube @FunctionX

Read this article:

World's First Blockchain-Powered Phone Arrives at CES 2020 - Bitcoinist

Ten Predictions For Cryptocurrency and Blockchain In 2020 – Bitrates

Posted on by

2020 marks the turn of the decade. Here's what we think might happen this year (or the next).

In May 2020, Bitcoin's block reward will be reduced by half, which should reduce inflation and drive up the price of BTC. However, many experts have observed that past halvings haven't caused price surges. If inflationary changes are priced into the market, as some experts believe, Bitcoin's next reward halving will probably have long-term effects that play out over more than a year. A short-term price surge is unlikely.

Ethereum collectibles (or non-fungible tokens) make up a modest portion of the crypto market. However, recognition is growing: Binance has announced a special series of Ethereum NFTs, while CoinGecko has announced a forum called NFTGecko. Other major exchanges and market aggregators may add limited support for NFTs in 2020especially if trading continues to grow on dedicated markets like OpenSea.

In October, Ripple CTO David Schwartz suggested that an XRP-backed stablecoin is under consideration. This is an important step forward for Ripple: many similar crypto projects aimed at bank settlement, such as JPM Coin and IBM World Wire rely heavily on stable, fiat-pegged cryptos. Though Ripple hasn't confirmed anything yet, a stablecoin would certainly give the company a stronger competitive foothold.

EOS has been plagued by congestion over the past two years. The issue has prompted several DApps to move to WAX, a blockchain that runs on EOSIO software without sharing EOS's overburdened network of block producers. Even EOS's parent company, Block.one, is planning to launch a social network on its own EOSIO blockchain. Alternate EOSIO blockchains may continue to "steal" apps from EOS this year.

In 2019, Tether minted $2 billion of USDT, bringing its market cap up to $4 billion and making it the fourth largest cryptocurrency. If Tether continues to mint $2 billion worth of USDT per year, it could surpass XRPs $8 billion market cap by the end of 2021. This would make USDT the third largest coina controversial achievement, given that some critics doubt that Tether actually has sufficient fiat backing in its reserves.

This year,Litecoin will introduce private transactions, a feature that led many exchanges to delist Monero and Zcash in 2019. Litecoin has attempted to reassure its users, but some exchanges may be biased toward delisting for regulatory reasons. The fact that Litecoin's privacy features are optional seems irrelevant, as Dash's similarly optional privacy features did not save it from delistings on Upbit and Coincheck.

This year, Cardano will launch staking rewards. Currently, its testnet has about 9.6 billion ADA tokens staked, representing about 1/3 of its total supply. However, this testnet only allowed entry over two "snapshot" days, whereas Cardanos mainnet will offer staking to all coinholders with very low restrictions. Cardano may be able to attract at least 50% of funds to its staking poolsand that is a conservative estimate.

Riccardo "fluffypony" Spagni stepped down as the lead maintainer of Monero in December, leaving a long-time contributor, Snipa, to take his place. However, Spagni also represents Monero on Twitter, while Snipa has admitted that he does not have an active social media presence. As one of Moneros few non-anonymous developers, Spagni will probably continue to be Monero's most recognizable personality.

Facebook's Libra is facing difficulties. U.S. regulators have been hostile to the project, several European countries have announced plans to block the currency, and companies have dropped out of the Libra Association. However, Facebook has been exploring other markets, such as India and Mexico, as well. Libra should find one location to go live in this yeareven if its launch is more limited than originally planned.

There are many uses for blockchain in the video game industry. Ultra is taking a grand-scale approach that is similar to Facebook: it's bringing onboard major companies to serve as node operators for profit. So far, Ultra has signed Ubisoft as a block producer and AMD as a strategic partner. If it succeeds, it will be a sign of a future trend: consortium-backed blockchains with big players from mainstream industries.

Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.

Join our newsletter and be the first to know!

We value your privacy, your email address is safe with us.

The rest is here:

Ten Predictions For Cryptocurrency and Blockchain In 2020 - Bitrates

After court win Telegram claims will abandon TON blockchain, gram token – Modern Consensus

Posted on by

Telegrams victory in court over the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday wasnt much of a victory. In fact, it could prove to be the undoing of its planned Telegram Open Network blockchain platform and gram cryptocurrency.

The SEC sued Telegram in October, alleging the messaging services $1.7 billion token offering had broken federal securities laws. Telegram is fighting the suit, claiming its grams are utility tokens, outside the agencys purview. But a new announcement that it wont integrate gram payments into its Telegram Messenger platform signals a recognition that its case is faltering.

Federal Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York gave the company a short-term win over the SEC by denying the agencys request to see all of Telegrams bank statements before a scheduled deposition of its CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, in Dubai on Jan. 7-8.

That saved the company from an impossible situation, as EU privacy requirements mean it could not legally turn over documents relating to European Union citizens without redacting personal information.

Judge Castel accounted for that, but he did order the company to turn the documents over in the not-too-distant future. He ordered Telegram to set forth a proposed schedule for a review of the requested bank records to ensure that production of such records complies with foreign data privacy laws, by Thursday.

The SECs document demands and the judges acquiescence to them mark an aggressive expansion of the agencys investigation. Having accused Telegram of making excuses, stalling, and generally trying to avoid handing over the documents, the SEC has made clear that it is no longer just trying to stop the gram sale.

Once the SEC gets its hands on those bank records, that will mark the beginning of an aggressive expansion of its investigation. Instead of just stopping the sale of TONs gram tokens to the general public, the SEC is now calling Telegrams 2018 initial coin offering to a small number of wealthy investors illegal, and is looking for evidence of fraud.

As a result, Telegram has come up with a new plan to launch TON while making sure the gram tokens it pre-sold in 2018 initial coin offering are not securities. Those tokens are the payment mechanism of TON.

In a blog post on Monday, the company announced that strategy change, which undercuts its biggest strength. It said it no longer planned to build its Telegram cryptocurrency wallet into the Telegram Messenger service, which has 200 million monthly active users.

Telegrams Ton Wallet application is expected to be made available solely on a stand-alone basis and will not be integrated with the Telegram Messenger service, Telegram wrote.

That is a Massive blow to $TON investors, Spencer Noon, founder of DTC Capital, tweeted. 90+% of the investment thesis for TON was having Telegram as a distribution channel.

Those 200 million Telegram users would have given TON a huge captive market. Users immediately would have been able to use grams for payments. That in turn would have given the company a huge lead over other blockchain-based payment platforms.

When Telegram pre-sold 2.9 billion gram tokens worth $1.7 billion to private investors in a Simple Agreement for Future Tokensor SAFTsale that ran from January through March 2018, that customer acquisition lead was the key selling point to the profit-seeking buyers.

That advantage is now gonemaybe.

In the blog post, Telegram highlighted its legal disclaimer that Telegram and its affiliates have not made any promises or commitments to develop any applications or features for the TON Blockchain or otherwise contribute in any way to the TON Blockchain platform after it launches. In fact, it said, It is possible that Telegram may never do so.

Nor will Telegram maintain TON, it said. Instead the companys goal and hope is that a decentralized community of third-party developers will maintain TON through a foundation.

That brought a snort of derision from Elizabeth Stark, co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs.

Because you know, decentralized third party protocol developers just grow on trees, she tweeted. The sentence was followed by a laughing-to-tears emoji.

Once it launches, Telegram wont be obligated to maintain the platform or create any apps for it, Telegram wrote in its blog post. Its possible we never will.

As for its TON Wallet, Telegram said it may integrate it in the future.

Telegram seems to be actively taking steps to separate the gram tokens from the only thing that really makes them interesting in the first place: the integration into the 200 million+ user messaging platform itself, wrote Ryan Selkis, founder of cryptocurrency research firm Messari, in an analysis Tuesday.

At issue is the Howey test, four questions that determine whether or not something offered for sale is a security. Two of those factors are whether investors have the expectation of profits based on the ongoing efforts of others. Normally, those efforts come from the offerings sponsor.

Telegrams argument has been that because gram will be used to make payments and transfer money on the TON blockchain, it is not a cryptocurrency bought as an investment but a utility token, outside the purview of the SEC. The SEC disagree, vigorously.

Which is why the announcement is likely a tactic in Telegrams fight with the SEC.

Distancing the Ton Wallet from the Telegram app makes sense if youre trying not to trip the efforts of others prong of the Howey test, but not if youre actually trying to distribute a useful token to your target users, Selkis said.

Ian Lee, managing director of Ideo CoLab Ventures, believes the announcement is a Howey test workaround by Telegram.

The goal, he tweeted, is to make TON more decentralized. Once the mainnet is up and running and other developers are creating distributed apps on the platform, grams will be decentralized enough that they will no longer be considered a security, he said.

At that point, Lee predicted, the TON Wallet will be natively integrated into Telegram.

He added: The problem is whether they will [ever get] there.

More:

After court win Telegram claims will abandon TON blockchain, gram token - Modern Consensus

Why Blockchain Is Not inherently At Odds With GDPR – JD Supra

Posted on by

Updated: May 25, 2018:

JD Supra is a legal publishing service that connects experts and their content with broader audiences of professionals, journalists and associations.

This Privacy Policy describes how JD Supra, LLC ("JD Supra" or "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses and shares personal data collected from visitors to our website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") who view only publicly-available content as well as subscribers to our services (such as our email digests or author tools)(our "Services"). By using our Website and registering for one of our Services, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Please note that if you subscribe to one of our Services, you can make choices about how we collect, use and share your information through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard (available if you are logged into your JD Supra account).

Registration Information. When you register with JD Supra for our Website and Services, either as an author or as a subscriber, you will be asked to provide identifying information to create your JD Supra account ("Registration Data"), such as your:

Other Information: We also collect other information you may voluntarily provide. This may include content you provide for publication. We may also receive your communications with others through our Website and Services (such as contacting an author through our Website) or communications directly with us (such as through email, feedback or other forms or social media). If you are a subscribed user, we will also collect your user preferences, such as the types of articles you would like to read.

Information from third parties (such as, from your employer or LinkedIn): We may also receive information about you from third party sources. For example, your employer may provide your information to us, such as in connection with an article submitted by your employer for publication. If you choose to use LinkedIn to subscribe to our Website and Services, we also collect information related to your LinkedIn account and profile.

Your interactions with our Website and Services: As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. This information includes IP addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the Website and our Services, to improve the content and performance of our Website and Services, and to track users' movements around the site. We may also link this automatically-collected data to personal information, for example, to inform authors about who has read their articles. Some of this data is collected through information sent by your web browser. We also use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about cookies and other tracking technologies that JD Supra may use on our Website and Services please see our "Cookies Guide" page.

We use the information and data we collect principally in order to provide our Website and Services. More specifically, we may use your personal information to:

JD Supra takes reasonable and appropriate precautions to insure that user information is protected from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We restrict access to user information to those individuals who reasonably need access to perform their job functions, such as our third party email service, customer service personnel and technical staff. You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. Where you use log-in credentials (usernames, passwords) on our Website, please remember that it is your responsibility to safeguard them. If you believe that your log-in credentials have been compromised, please contact us at privacy@jdsupra.com.

Our Website and Services are not directed at children under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 through our Website and/or Services. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 has provided personal information to us, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

Our Website and Services may contain links to other websites. The operators of such other websites may collect information about you, including through cookies or other technologies. If you are using our Website or Services and click a link to another site, you will leave our Website and this Policy will not apply to your use of and activity on those other sites. We encourage you to read the legal notices posted on those sites, including their privacy policies. We are not responsible for the data collection and use practices of such other sites. This Policy applies solely to the information collected in connection with your use of our Website and Services and does not apply to any practices conducted offline or in connection with any other websites.

JD Supra's principal place of business is in the United States. By subscribing to our website, you expressly consent to your information being processed in the United States.

You can make a request to exercise any of these rights by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

You can also manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard.

We will make all practical efforts to respect your wishes. There may be times, however, where we are not able to fulfill your request, for example, if applicable law prohibits our compliance. Please note that JD Supra does not use "automatic decision making" or "profiling" as those terms are defined in the GDPR.

Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, our customers who are California residents have the right to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

You can make a request for this information by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

Some browsers have incorporated a Do Not Track (DNT) feature. These features, when turned on, send a signal that you prefer that the website you are visiting not collect and use data regarding your online searching and browsing activities. As there is not yet a common understanding on how to interpret the DNT signal, we currently do not respond to DNT signals on our site.

For non-EU/Swiss residents, if you would like to know what personal information we have about you, you can send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com. We will be in contact with you (by mail or otherwise) to verify your identity and provide you the information you request. We will respond within 30 days to your request for access to your personal information. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. If you would like to correct or update your personal information, you can manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard. If you would like to delete your account or remove your information from our Website and Services, send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Please refer to the date at the top of this page to determine when this Policy was last revised. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the revised policy on the Website. By continuing to use our Website and Services following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, your dealings with our Website or Services, or if you would like to change any of the information you have provided to us, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

As with many websites, JD Supra's website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") and our services (such as our email article digests)(our "Services") use a standard technology called a "cookie" and other similar technologies (such as, pixels and web beacons), which are small data files that are transferred to your computer when you use our Website and Services. These technologies automatically identify your browser whenever you interact with our Website and Services.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to:

There are different types of cookies and other technologies used our Website, notably:

JD Supra Cookies. We place our own cookies on your computer to track certain information about you while you are using our Website and Services. For example, we place a session cookie on your computer each time you visit our Website. We use these cookies to allow you to log-in to your subscriber account. In addition, through these cookies we are able to collect information about how you use the Website, including what browser you may be using, your IP address, and the URL address you came from upon visiting our Website and the URL you next visit (even if those URLs are not on our Website). We also utilize email web beacons to monitor whether our emails are being delivered and read. We also use these tools to help deliver reader analytics to our authors to give them insight into their readership and help them to improve their content, so that it is most useful for our users.

Analytics/Performance Cookies. JD Supra also uses the following analytic tools to help us analyze the performance of our Website and Services as well as how visitors use our Website and Services:

Facebook, Twitter and other Social Network Cookies. Our content pages allow you to share content appearing on our Website and Services to your social media accounts through the "Like," "Tweet," or similar buttons displayed on such pages. To accomplish this Service, we embed code that such third party social networks provide and that we do not control. These buttons know that you are logged in to your social network account and therefore such social networks could also know that you are viewing the JD Supra Website.

If you would like to change how a browser uses cookies, including blocking or deleting cookies from the JD Supra Website and Services you can do so by changing the settings in your web browser. To control cookies, most browsers allow you to either accept or reject all cookies, only accept certain types of cookies, or prompt you every time a site wishes to save a cookie. It's also easy to delete cookies that are already saved on your device by a browser.

The processes for controlling and deleting cookies vary depending on which browser you use. To find out how to do so with a particular browser, you can use your browser's "Help" function or alternatively, you can visit http://www.aboutcookies.org which explains, step-by-step, how to control and delete cookies in most browsers.

We may update this cookie policy and our Privacy Policy from time-to-time, particularly as technology changes. You can always check this page for the latest version. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.

If you have any questions about how we use cookies and other tracking technologies, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

Link:

Why Blockchain Is Not inherently At Odds With GDPR - JD Supra

Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 Chastised by Blockchain Lawyer: Here’s Why – U.Today

Posted on by

Mr. Preston Byrne, an attorney in the U.S.-basedByrne & Storm, P.C. law firm, which is focused on legal expertise for hi-tech projects, venomously criticized the long-anticipated migration of Ethereum (ETH) mainnet towards ETH2.

Mr. Byrne challenged the hypothetical point of transition between Ethereum(ETH) 1.0 and Ethereum(ETH) 2.0. Two problems are decisive for him: the nature of this transition and its initiator.

If the decision onthis transfer istaken by the issuer (Ethereum Foundation), the whole system turns into a clearly centralized one. This, in turn, runs counter the motto of Ethereum (ETH), which is a pioneer of decentralized applications hosting.

Such contradiction leaves Mr. Byrne confused:

One rule for Ethereum, another rule for everyone else.

Also, Mr. Byrne expressed concerns about the ideological aspect of the long-anticipated transition. He says, this process means that Ethereum(ETH) is 'relegated down' by some new system, which is much faster, cheaper and safer.

The consequences of this rivalry can be really unfortunate for blockchain number two:

Eth may one day be an esoteric blockchain creature that only old millennial weirdos use, when millennials are in the position that boomers are now. Like Linux or Firefox.

It should be noted that neither the exact date of the transition of Ethereum(ETH), nor its framework has notyet been disclosed. But typically this is2020,which is considered the turning point for ETH2.

Must Read

So, when this annoying Ethereum 2.0 will be shipped? Share your predictions with us!

See the original post:

Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 Chastised by Blockchain Lawyer: Here's Why - U.Today

Discover the Top 50 Blockchain Games Companies at Blockchain Gamer LIVE! on Tuesday 21 January – Pocket Gamer.Biz

Posted on by

The first-ever Top 50 Blockchain Games list, in association with Dapp Radar, is set to launch at this years Blockchain Gamer LIVE!event in London.

The Top 50 includes developers, publishers, toolmakers, distribution networks, tech companies, community leaders and other key members of the ecosystem.

The ceremony will take place from 12:20pm in track room 4 at The Brewery venue, as part of the dedicated blockchain conference at the UKs biggest B2B event for the games industry, Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020. The Top 50 reveal is free to attend for everybody with a Pocket Gamer Connects/Blockchain Gamer LIVE! pass.

There will be a glossy 50-page booklet available to collect at the venue, explaining why each of the top 50 companies was chosen. The criteria include financial success, business growth, global reach, potential industry impact and product quality.

To be working in the blockchain game sector is to be experiencing a pregnancy of uncertain duration, explains BlockchainGamer.biz editor Jon Jordan. Youre convinced something is coming. Youre just not sure how long youre going to have to wait or the exact details. In that context, this list of the top 50 blockchain games companies, while also highlighting current achievements, is better understood as the attempt to rank future success. One thing we can state with certainty is that 2020 will be the most important year yet - and perhaps ever - for blockchain games!

A revolution in waiting

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise the games industry. Thats why in 2018, Pocket Gamers parent company Steel Media launched a new B2B site dedicated to illuminating and celebrating this technology as it applies to the games market. With features about key issues, interviews with top professionals, and resources such as an events planner and token listings, its the first port of call for developers, publishers, investors and service providers. The team behind the site will be available to meet at Blockchain Gamer LIVE! this month.

This dedicated partner event to industry-leading PG Connects conference takes place all day on Tuesday 21 January and features four tracks and 50 speakers, discussing everything from blockchain basics to the trends that will shape the future.

Book your ticket now!

Read the rest here:

Discover the Top 50 Blockchain Games Companies at Blockchain Gamer LIVE! on Tuesday 21 January - Pocket Gamer.Biz

You Can Slow Down Time in Virtual Reality: Why This Artist Is Using VR to Recreate Lost Ecosystems in the Era of Climate Change – artnet News

Posted on by

The last Kauai bird died in 1987. After the species went extinct, a user uploaded a recording of the Hawaiian birds unique mating call to YouTube in 2009 and it has since been played by humans more than a half-million times since.

One of them was the Danish-born, New York-based artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen, who usesVirtual Reality as a tool to remix and create a new kind of landscape that is not bound to time or space, and that recalls the irretrievable, lost nature of history.

For his recent installationRE-ANIMATED(2018-19), which was on view in the Future Generation Art Prizes exhibition in Venice during last years biennale, Steensen brings the Kauai bird back to life via an imagined virtual-reality world.

We spoke with Steensen about how he captures an irreconcilable sense of loss in his work and the collective memories that exist between the parallel digital and physical worlds, all through the lens of VR technology.

Your VR workRE-ANIMATED was inspired by the environmental catastrophe that occurred in 1826 when a ship carrying horses to Mexico stopped in Kauai and introduced malaria-carrying mosquitoes into the islands ecosystem, rendering dozens of birds extinct. In a poetic intervention, you virtually recreate one of these extinct birds and Kauais lost ecosystem. What was it about this ecological event that made you want to make this work, and how did you go about doing it?

Four years ago, I came home from a long day of work and was randomly looking at things on the internet, and then I came across this recording of the bird. It was the voice recording of the last Kauai bird that existed on Earth. The birds mating call was uploaded to YouTube and was listened to by people more than a half-million times.

I then read through the comments. There were more than 2,000 very emotional comments to this call. It was as if I had this picture of 2,000 people sitting alone, in front of the computer, responding emotionally to this recording of this extinct bird, and it struck me as something really specific to our time.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen, RE-ANIMATED (2018). Future Generation Art Prize, 2019 Venice Biennale. Courtesy of the artist.

Theres another layer of this story, which is personal, and I dont want to go into details, but its about family and losses. Even though I grew up in a digital time and am used to archiving things with social-media pictures and everything, people still die and vanish and can never come back.

If you think about that, we are living in a time where were trying to bring back extinct species, which is a weird relationship with our past. We have a collective anxiety that everything will vanish, and more and more nature is being destroyed.

I started this project by going to the Museum of Natural History, which collected this bird in the 1800s. So I collected all the materials, the feathers, along with the big archive of plants and trees with all sorts of different species, and I used this archive to recreate the whole landscape. And then I used the satellite images of the island, and then traveled to this island and explored myself. Its a very slow and laborious process, but thats how I usually work on a project.

I like that you describe yourself as a digital gardener. Its very poetic and speaks to your work of recreating lost landscapes to raise awareness about climate change. What is your opinion on VR as a medium for creativity? What is its potential and what are its limits?

VR is a very interesting medium because its corporalyou have to use your body. And my interest is also to bring certain virtual landscapes to people who normally dont use computers. I make works that are very accessibleyou just put on a headset, and thats it. Everyone knows how to move their head and body. So, all of a sudden you can show your art in an intuitive way.

I tried to use minimally complicated controls, I tried to make it very intuitive and playful. And thats something that speaks to the nature of VRyou can take a virtual media and make it a human language. Thats how I look at it. It speaks to you on a human level.

In a way, paintings and projections on screen are one-directional. It is an old way of looking at the world, like the perspective in Western art history. Installation is perhaps a better analogy to VR. Walking into a physical space in an installation is similar to the VR experience; thats also why I built installation around my work sometimes, when the conditions allowed.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen, The Deep Listener (2019), VR visualization. Courtesy of the artist.

What about the limits of VR as a medium?

The limits of VR as medium would be the size of the audience. I have eight headsets now, and after each exhibition they just broke down because the technology is so new. All these complications can play in when dealing with a big audience.

Immersive virtual technologies have enabled us to experience both distant locales and imagined worlds like never before, and your works are great examples of storytelling in VR. However, it seems no one has yet fully cracked the code of creating a truly participatory narrative experience where the viewer has real agency. What do you think needs to happen to get VR to take the leap into the next frontier of storytelling? How do you see this medium evolving over time?

When I show in film festivals, people talk a lot about storytelling, but for me, the way I have been creating my work is almost like moving away from that. A story is a narrative, but I am looking for the experiential part of it, like the senses of the body. Before you understand the mediumfor example, how VR relates to the human bodyregardless of the story you want to tell, its going to fall apart. If youve never played video games or created 3D, it can be quite challenging to use this medium well, because you might make something like when youre looking at 2D on a screen, but you actually need to think about how the body moves in your eyes.

Regarding AR [augmented reality] and VR, the first and foremost challenge is to understand how human bodies are navigating in a space. And I believe before you understand that, its hard to utilize the medium in a compelling way.And you also need to respect your audience. Imagine this: All of a sudden, their body is part of your art; they are no longer just standing, watching, or listening. Youre inviting them to use their bodies to explore the world you created, and I think that really requires a lot of attention and respect.

If you are just violently throwing another human into a 3D world and they dont know how to move themselves, thats when a lot of clashes happen.

You have to think about the human, not the technology. When I design, I think about where the person will be looking and I create a virtual scene. I think about what kind of feeling I want to convey, and then I add the colors, light, and the atmosphere. I think about how I want people to hear, and then I use the technology around to achieve that, instead of trying to force something into the technology. In the past two years, the technology has evolved super fast and the audience now is more used to the medium as well. I am optimistic. I think in the end it just takes time.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen, RE-ANIMATED (2018). Future Generation Art Prize exhibition during the 2019 Venice Biennale. Courtesy of the artist.

The way you incorporate audio, 2D images, and 3D animation into a holistic VR experience is not through a linear narrative. Your work conveys the eerie, unsettling sense of jumping around in time. What is your intention here?

My interest lies in exploring different space and time in natural history. These spatial transformative technologies like VR are a very powerful medium when youre interested in past natural histories because you can literally 3D scan the whole landscape. And I use satellite images, and I digitize plants that I collected in nature and put them on the landscape. I literally go to landscapes and collect organic materials, I collect and photograph them, and transform that into virtual spaces. In other words, I build imaginary landscapes based on the actual materials I collected.

The technologies allowed me to show things to youfor example, how past landscapes can change overtime, how you can look from the scale of a beetle, how you can change your perspective. These things are what this technology is very good at. You can also jump around in time and you can slow down time in virtual realityyou can change your scale in different dimensions.

Your workThe Deep Listener at the Serpentine Galleries last year (commissioned in collaboration withGoogle Arts & Culture and Sir David Adjaye) involved creatingan AR experience of the Kensington Gardens surrounding the gallery. Through extensive research and work with biologists, you focused on one species in each of the five spots you chose and recreated the visual and sonic experiences that users interact with. Where did the inspiration for this work come from?

It takes place in the whole park in London and there are five different locations. You have to go there with your phone. When you arrive at the location, you find these large creatures that are based on the different species in the park that lived at this location, each with different visualized audio recordings. When you physically move around with the phone in your hand, youre also changing the speed of the audio, as if youre changing the speed of time as you walk through the park and interact with the audio.

It basically allows you to hear things you usually dont hear with your phone. Like bats, for example. When you walk around, youre changing how fast the audio is playing, and the pitches, so your ears wouldnt hear these sounds usually. Theres an App you can download and will always be available to use when you visit the park. Everyone can download it.

Where do you find the most inspiration for your work these days?

My inspirations are usually based on the conversations with my friends and biologists, then I go and spend many months in the landscape. I am always out exploring places and talking to people. For example, I spend two months researching the species, and then I find five locations that I want people to go to and explore.

Starting next month, I will be spending nine months in the landscape and collaborating with my wife. We are trying to create a project together. We are going to Sorrel Island; its an island in between Europe and the States where the tectonic plates meet, where three continents meet in one spot, and they formed a mini continent, deep in the sea. We are going to see if we can work with the robots therethe robots that are collecting data for scientistsand then from there we can create a new landscape.

Your works evolve around nature and its histories, and I am curious whether you think we are in the best of times or the end of times? One oddity of our current era is that extreme pessimism about the world coexists with extreme optimism.

There are two answers to that: One is, statistically, we are at a point where we dont have something truly comparable to the past. Its hard to predict what will happen in the future because of that. We have a lot of knowledge and tools available, but at the same time, it could just go the completely opposite direction.

I think were at the middle point between this utopia and dystopia. We are at a point in time when they are clashing together, and barely holding right now, and it could go many different ways.Thats also why Im making works that combine different times. Its more emotional and psychologically challengingthats the kind of ground I have been trying to create. In my works, I tried to create from this old realistic landscape and transform it into something new in the future. All my works exist in the middle of this coexistence of times.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen, RE-ANIMATED (2018) film still. Future Generation Art Prize, 2019 Venice Biennale. Courtesy of the artist.

Secondly, I do believe that much more has to be done, and we need to actually spread the messages, as well as to give resources to people. Consequently, I am thinking more and more about how, as an artist, can my projects help to achieve that? How can they be more specific than in the past, to help share the stories about places that need to have more work be done?

Recently I have been talking to this NGO in Panama that protects the frogs there. And we were talking about how there are 12 different species of frogs that are all extinct in the wild because of a fungus. Because theres a fungus crisis spreading out, and the fungus is making all frogs extinct, all frogs will disappear eventually, from Panama to South America. And people still dont know how to stop it.

This NGO is collecting the frogs that survived the fungus and preserving them, working to see how they can become resistant and then releasing them back to the wild. If they release these frogs back to the wild, all of them will die, unfortunately, because the politics has changed. The NGO doesnt work with the Smithsonian anymore; as a result they are facing financial difficulties to continue the preservation program.

Its pretty obvious if they dont continue to get financed, eventually there will be no frogs in Panama in the future. Its a fact. And these things I find more and more relevant to share with people.I still want to make art thats emotional and powerful, but I am also thinking about how to connect to the stories that are happening right now in our world.

More here:

You Can Slow Down Time in Virtual Reality: Why This Artist Is Using VR to Recreate Lost Ecosystems in the Era of Climate Change - artnet News

Virtual reality, real injuries: OSU study aims to ease VR’s aches and pains – KTVZ

Posted on by

CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Carpal tunnel, stiff shoulders, eye-strain headaches these are all well-known side effects of prolonged computer use. But what happens when you step away from the desktop and into virtual reality?

A recentstudyfrom Oregon State University assessed how some common virtual reality movements contribute to muscle strain and discomfort. Its an effort to ensure future user safety in this fast-growing technology that is used not only for gaming, but also increasingly for education and industrial training.

There are no standards and guidelines for virtual and augmented reality interactions, said researcher Jay Kim of OSUS College of Public Health and Human Sciences. We wanted to evaluate the effects of the target distances, locations and sizes so we can better design these interfaces to reduce the risk for potential musculoskeletal injuries.

The study was published recently in Applied Ergonomics with Northern Illinois University co-authors Sai Akhil Penumudi, Veera Aneesh Kuppam and Jaejin Hwang.

Virtual reality users wear a headset and engage in full-body, three-dimensional movements unlike conventional computer users, where a desk or the arms of a chair offer some level of support for the hands and arms.

With sensors placed on participants joints and muscles, researchers used motion capture to record their movements and electromyography to measure electrical activity in their muscles while performing common VR gestures. Wearing an Oculus Rift VR headset, participants were tasked with either pointing to specific dots around a circle, or coloring in a certain area with their finger.

Researchers repeated the tests with the visuals placed at eye level, 15 degrees above eye level, 15 degrees below eye level and 30 degrees below eye level.

Regardless of the angle, extending the arm straight out causes shoulder discomfort in as little as three minutes, Kim said. With prolonged use, as VR often requires, this may lead to major health problems like gorilla arm syndrome and rotator cuff injuries.

In addition, the heavy VR headset may increase the burden on the cervical spine, risking greater neck strain.

In computer users, the relationship between awkward postures or repeated movements and musculoskeletal disorders is well known, Kim said. We wanted to see how the VR compares to conventional computer-human interactions.

The goal of the study was to establish a baseline of optimal object placement and angles, so VR developers going forward can design games and programs that minimize user discomfort.

Researchers focused on neck and shoulder movements. They found performance in the coloring task was worst when participants had to tilt their heads down 15 and 30 degrees. The most extreme postures and highest muscle activity were observed with targets at 15 degrees above eye level, as participants were forced to constantly maintain their extended neck and elevated arm position. And discomfort was greatest in the pointing task at 15 degrees above eye level.

Based on this study, we recommend that objects that are being interacted with more often should be closer to the body, Kim said. And objects should be located at eye level, rather than up and down.

The findings could have a massive impact, given VRs growing demand: Tech analysts project that roughly168 millionpeople worldwide will have some form of VR installed by 2023. A major portion of users are gamers, but VRs practical applications extend to health care, the military, education and training. Incoal mining, for example, trainees use VR to practice new skills that would be dangerous to learn on-site.

Kims main goal is to avoid the mistakes of the past. When personal computing was first emerging in the 80s and 90s, he said, people often didnt think of the risks of overuse until it was too late.

With VR, he said, Wed like to learn now, rather than later.

View original post here:

Virtual reality, real injuries: OSU study aims to ease VR's aches and pains - KTVZ

Virtual Reality Is Causing Real Injuries Heres How to Reduce Physical Risk in VR – SciTechDaily

Posted on by

Motion capture and electromyography sensors measure a study participants movement and muscle activity while performing common VR gestures. Credit: Jay Kim

Carpal tunnel, stiff shoulders, eye-strain headaches these are all well-known side effects of prolonged computer use. But what happens when you step away from the desktop and into virtual reality?

A recent study from Oregon State University assessed how some common virtual reality movements contribute to muscle strain and discomfort. Its an effort to ensure future user safety in this fast-growing technology that is used not only for gaming, but also increasingly for education and industrial training.

There are no standards and guidelines for virtual and augmented reality interactions, said researcher Jay Kim of OSUS College of Public Health and Human Sciences. We wanted to evaluate the effects of the target distances, locations, and sizes so we can better design these interfaces to reduce the risk for potential musculoskeletal injuries.

The study was published recently in Applied Ergonomics with Northern Illinois University co-authors Sai Akhil Penumudi, Veera Aneesh Kuppam and Jaejin Hwang.

Virtual reality users wear a headset and engage in full-body, three-dimensional movements unlike conventional computer users, where a desk or the arms of a chair offer some level of support for the hands and arms.

With sensors placed on participants joints and muscles, researchers used motion capture to record their movements and electromyography to measure electrical activity in their muscles while performing common VR gestures. Wearing an Oculus Rift VR headset, participants were tasked with either pointing to specific dots around a circle, or coloring in a certain area with their finger.

Researchers repeated the tests with the visuals placed at eye level, 15 degrees above eye level, 15 degrees below eye level and 30 degrees below eye level.

Regardless of the angle, extending the arm straight out causes shoulder discomfort in as little as three minutes, Kim said. With prolonged use, as VR often requires, this may lead to major health problems like gorilla arm syndrome and rotator cuff injuries.

In addition, the heavy VR headset may increase the burden on the cervical spine, risking greater neck strain.

In computer users, the relationship between awkward postures or repeated movements and musculoskeletal disorders is well known, Kim said. We wanted to see how the VR compares to conventional computer-human interactions.

The goal of the study was to establish a baseline of optimal object placement and angles, so VR developers going forward can design games and programs that minimize user discomfort.

Researchers focused on neck and shoulder movements. They found performance in the coloring task was worst when participants had to tilt their heads down 15 and 30 degrees. The most extreme postures and highest muscle activity were observed with targets at 15 degrees above eye level, as participants were forced to constantly maintain their extended neck and elevated arm position. And discomfort was greatest in the pointing task at 15 degrees above eye level.

Based on this study, we recommend that objects that are being interacted with more often should be closer to the body, Kim said. And objects should be located at eye level, rather than up and down.

The findings could have a massive impact, given VRs growing demand: Tech analysts project that roughly 168 million people worldwide will have some form of VR installed by 2023. A major portion of users are gamers, but VRs practical applications extend to health care, the military, education, and training. In coal mining, for example, trainees use VR to practice new skills that would be dangerous to learn on-site.

Kims main goal is to avoid the mistakes of the past. When personal computing was first emerging in the 80s and 90s, he said, people often didnt think of the risks of overuse until it was too late.

With VR, he said, Wed like to learn now rather than later.

Reference: The effects of target location on musculoskeletal load, task performance, and subjective discomfort during virtual reality interactions by Sai Akhil Penumudi, Veera Aneesh Kuppam, Jeong Ho Kim and Jaejin Hwang, 27 November 2019, Applied Ergonomics.DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2019.103010

See the article here:

Virtual Reality Is Causing Real Injuries Heres How to Reduce Physical Risk in VR - SciTechDaily