Bitcoin tech and the future of business

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The new Medici?

When online retailer Overstock began accepting bitcoins in January, many in the crypto community cheered the move as an important step in the currency's eventual universal acceptance. What most didn't realize, though, is that buying goods is not all Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has in mind.

In an Oct. 6 announcement, Byrne revealed that he was planning a completely decentralized financial exchange using blockchain technology. Byrne, whose disdain of Wall Street is well documented, said he thinks this system will ultimately replace the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

"We can bring a technology to market that does everything that Wall Street does," he said. "We will have made the biggest financial disruption in 800 years."

Harkening to the advent of modern banking in the Renaissance, Overstock has dubbed its project "Medici." Byrne said it may eventually replace retail as the primary focus of his company.

Read MoreCNBC Explains: How to mine bitcoins on your own

Marketing and bluster aside, Medici offers a clear value proposition: An equities or bonds exchange that cuts out the middlemen could offer greater efficiencies and cost-savingsand allow for the layman to more readily participate in the market.

Although that task may seem daunting from a regulatory standpoint because it seeks to fully upend the current system, Byrne predicted he will be offering the first securities over his exchange in April as "early indications are actually quite positive" from regulators.

Any new exchange will be examined closely by the Securities and Exchange Commission to make sure it satisfies regulatory requirements for fair trading and adequate disclosure, Shadab said.

Also, the technological and regulatory hurdles facing Medici are not necessarily as trivial as Byrne thinks, said Charles Hoskinson, director of the Bitcoin Education Project, who has been involved with several blockchain projects.

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Bitcoin tech and the future of business

Forget currency, bitcoin's tech is the revolution

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The new Medici?

When online retailer Overstock began accepting bitcoins in January, many in the crypto community cheered the move as an important step in the currency's eventual universal acceptance. What most didn't realize, though, is that buying goods is not all Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has in mind.

In an Oct. 6 announcement, Byrne revealed that he was planning a completely decentralized financial exchange using blockchain technology. Byrne, whose disdain of Wall Street is well documented, said he thinks this system will ultimately replace the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

"We can bring a technology to market that does everything that Wall Street does," he said. "We will have made the biggest financial disruption in 800 years."

Harkening to the advent of modern banking in the Renaissance, Overstock has dubbed its project "Medici." Byrne said it may eventually replace retail as the primary focus of his company.

Read MoreCNBC Explains: How to mine bitcoins on your own

Marketing and bluster aside, Medici offers a clear value proposition: An equities or bonds exchange that cuts out the middlemen could offer greater efficiencies and cost-savingsand allow for the layman to more readily participate in the market.

Although that task may seem daunting from a regulatory standpoint because it seeks to fully upend the current system, Byrne predicted he will be offering the first securities over his exchange in April as "early indications are actually quite positive" from regulators.

Any new exchange will be examined closely by the Securities and Exchange Commission to make sure it satisfies regulatory requirements for fair trading and adequate disclosure, Shadab said.

Also, the technological and regulatory hurdles facing Medici are not necessarily as trivial as Byrne thinks, said Charles Hoskinson, director of the Bitcoin Education Project, who has been involved with several blockchain projects.

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Forget currency, bitcoin's tech is the revolution

Bitcoin 101: Why It's Attracting Wall Street Investment

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Despite its infancy, Bitcoins are being called one of the greatest developments of the new financial services landscape. Here's why.

Ten months ago, I set up my digital wallet and bought my first bitcoin. Weeks later, after five years on Wall Street, I decided to leave behind the bulge-bracket banks and their endless rows of gray and navy suits and join the ranks of forward-thinking disruptors who just might transform the financial services industry forever.

Consideringmy conservative finance background, youre probably wondering why I made the jump. More importantly, you would be smart to ask whether the esteemed institutions I left behind would even consider looking at something as nascent as Bitcoin. Its true that Bitcoin and digital currencies are still in their infancy, but what they lack in age, they more than make up for in potential. Bitcoin might radically alter our concepts of money, store of value, and the means by which assets are exchanged the world over, and therein lies the opportunity-- and the risks.

Today I spearhead investor outreach for the broker-dealer providing sales and marketing for the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT), a private, open-ended trust that is invested exclusively in Bitcoin and derives its value solely from the price of Bitcoin. I spend my time educating hedge funds, asset managers, family offices, and other investors about the digital currency space. As such, I thought that it would be helpful to provide this audience with a Bitcoin 101. Upon learning about Bitcoin, I think youll come to understand why it has attracted so much attention and investment from the venture capital community and, increasingly, from Wall Street.

So, what is Bitcoin?

First, you need to understand that Bitcoin actually refers to two different things. There is Bitcoin, big B, which refers to the underlying technology and global payment system, and bitcoin, little b, which refers to the digital currency that makes the network and technology work. Id argue that the two cannot be separated.

Bitcoin, the open-source protocol, was released in 2009 by an anonymous programmer who called himself Satoshi Nakamoto. At its core, Bitcoin centers on the concept of the blockchain, a public ledger, which records every transaction on the Bitcoin network. The blockchain employs innovations from cryptography, peer-to-peer technology, and economics to allow two parties who dont know each other to instantly and securely transfer assets -- without a trusted third-party intermediary.

Payments are a good early use case. Jill can send Jack money without a bank clearing the transaction and without Jack ever worrying that Jill has duped him and double spent the same funds with another party. Jill sends funds to Jack by broadcasting a transaction to the Bitcoin network that she wants to transfer funds from her public key (a randomized alpha-numeric address stored on the blockchain) to Jacks public key, and she proves that she is entitled to transfer those funds by providing her corresponding private key. Dont get hung up on the terminology: The public and private keys are just the Bitcoin equivalent of your bank account number and password. The key difference between Bitcoin and banking is that while transactions are public and pseudonymous, the addresses and numbers of bitcoins involved in a given transaction are known to everyone and are recorded on the blockchain.

Bitcoins come into existence through a process called mining, where individuals/institutions who have invested in powerful computers to run the Bitcoin software compete to correctly process transactions on the network. This involves confirming the ownership and movement of Bitcoin between owners. The reward for spending time, energy, and computing processing power? Freshly minted or mined bitcoins.

Mining solves two problems: first, how to fairly distribute the new currency; second, how to incentivize early pioneers to process transactions. The Bitcoin protocol awards miners with new bitcoins according to an algorithm that adjusts predictively over time. There are approximately 13.4 million bitcoins in circulation, which at todays price of US$350 per bitcoin, carries a market capitalization around 4.5 billion dollars. The Bitcoin protocol stipulates that there will only ever be 21 million created, and we can estimate that the 21 millionth bitcoin wont be mined until the year 2140.

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Bitcoin 101: Why It's Attracting Wall Street Investment

Your Digital Self: Why youll finally be using bitcoin soon

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Bitcoin is used as a currency in some stores, even though it doesnt have the backing of a central bank or government.

Bitcoin has come a long way, from a mysterious and controversial crypto-currency to a widely known medium of exchange.

Although faced with occasional challenges (such as the MtGox bitcoin heist, Silk Road incident or Chinas regulatory stance), the bitcoin community remains unshaken, showing a surprising amount of resilience and trust in the digital currency.

As time passed, many new altcoin variants (alternatives to bitcoin) have sprung to life, the most notable of which are Litecoin and Peercoin. Litecoin is advertised as faster and more efficient, and Peercoin uses the concept of proof-of-stake, which means you gain Peercoins based on the amount of the currency you hold and not on your computers processing power, as is the case with bitcoin.

Bitcoin this year gained enough momentum to become a market-disrupting force. More than 60,000 businesses now accept the currency (Dish Network DISH, +1.33% joined in August), and the value of venture-capital investments made in bitcoin jumped 28% in the second quarter from the first quarter.

So what will be the trends, and challenges, in the years ahead?

Bitcoin may become a new Western Union: This is what one Reddit user said:

Bitcoin and Circle just solved my remittance problem. I live in Belarus, people. I receive my salary here, in a local bank account tied to a debit card in U.S. dollars. One of my big problems is transferring my salary back to my U.S. account with minimal fees so that I can make payments on student loans and such.

With Circle, I can now send any amount of money to my Coinbase account to be withdrawn to my local bank account with negligible transaction fees. This is a game changer, folks. I dont care if bitcoins value drops to $0.10; its now the only way Im going to be transferring money.

Alternative currencies are disrupting the way money transfer is handled worldwide. With services like Circle, money transfers are now becoming instant, secure and free as they should be.

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Your Digital Self: Why youll finally be using bitcoin soon

'Samsung to be biggest beneficiary of Bitcoin market'

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Kim Young-won

The Korea Herald

Publication Date : 13-11-2014

A leading Bitcoin organisation founder said Samsung Electronics, a chipmaking powerhouse, will likely benefit the most as the global market for the digital currency Bitcoin grows further down the road.

At least half a billion US dollars, up from $10 million two years ago, will be spent on purchasing Bitcoin mining systems (built using highly efficient chips) worldwide next year or in 18 months, said Peter Vessenes, chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, a US organisation committed to promoting the use of the cybercurrency, at a news conference Tuesday.

The news conference was held on the sidelines of the Daejeon Global Innovation Forum, a global tech conference taking place in the city of Deajeon from Wednesday to Thursday.

Much of the money will go directly to foundries with the highest technology in the world, including Samsung, Intel and TSMC, he added.

Samsung is one of a few chipmakers capable of producing 10-nonometer-class chips.

Since obtaining Bitcoins requires an enormous amount of computing prowess, those who want to get their hands on the digital currency must be equipped with cutting-edge chip technology and computer systems.

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'Samsung to be biggest beneficiary of Bitcoin market'

Comets headed back to SHSAA 9 man football champio

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The MUCC Comets football team is heading to familiar territory, the SHSAA provincial 9-man football championship. Also familiar is the opponent, the Warman Wolverines. Warman is going to be ready to play us. I think they have been looking forward to playing us again since 2012 and this is an opportunity for them to do that, said Comets head coach Dave Rogers. When the teams met in the Ice Bowl of 2012, the field was literally covered in ice and the Comets wore broomball shoes in the game. They defeated the Wolverines 53-26, claiming the provincial championship. Rogers said the Comets need to be ready to go despite the weather, which is forecasted to be a mix of sun and clouds with a high of -10 degrees, but it should feel like -18 with a 20 kilometre per hour wind. The provincial final is a week later than usual so the weather could play a role in the game a little bit more than usual. We need to be prepared to execute in what could be a pretty cold day although it couldnt be as cold as 2012, Rogers recalled. What will be different from the last time these teams met is the venue. In 2012 the game was played in Melfort, this year it will be at Warman High School. Rogers expect the Wolverines to be a well prepared and well coached team, having advanced to the provincial final. They execute really well on offense. There is another Misskey, he is their quarterback he is a good athlete. They have a few good receivers, they like to throw the ball. They play that spread like we saw a few years ago, he said. They are good. They had five kids play on the U18 program. We know they have some great athletes. However he expects the Comets to also be ready for the contest. Rogers said the players are taking the post season games very seriously working hard in practices and preparations. I give a lot of credit to our kids for the way they are preparing throughout the playoffs. They take the time to be well prepared and work hard in practice and those are the things that are paying dividends for us as we are moving forward throughout the playoffs. The Wolverines advanced tot he provincial final by defeating the Melville Cobras 58-0 in one semi-final game on Saturday, November 8. The Comets advanced to the provincial final by defeating the Delisle Rebels 48-14 in the other semi-final game. In that game Rogers said the offense played well with the exception of a few hiccups, but the defense, again controlled the game. We had a couple of opportunities early in the game where we would have a receiver open and the ball was just three feet thrown too far. A couple times where we had opportunities to put more points on the board but it was 13-0 at the half and the defense played fantastic the whole game. That is par for the course. He said the Rebels never quit and came out strong in the third quarter with touchdown. Any momentum that the Rebels gained by the big plays that led to their score was taken back on the ensuing kickoff. Really, a play that defined the game for us was Delisle kicked off after going down in four plays and scoring and our kickoff return team returned the ball for a touchdown from about the 20 yard line. About 80 yard return, Rogers said. From there the comets seemed in control. The defense kept playing great. Offense kept grinding the ball. (quarterback) Lee Taylor made some really nice reads and throws. The offensive line blocked very well and we ran the ball quite successfully against them which we hoped to do. The rebels last points came late in the game as the Comets had their junior players competing. Helping the Comets post the win was a large group of fans that made the trip. Rogers said having them there was great to see. I think there were more Comet fans than there were Delisle Rebel fans. Our guys were definitely louder, he recalled. I would imagine that we will see another great contingent of Melfort Comet football fans in Warman.

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Comets headed back to SHSAA 9 man football champio

Three Mind-Blowing Things The Comet Lander Will Investigate Regarding Life In The Universe

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The landing on comet 67P was triumphant, but for scientists, the adventure is just beginning. This jagged and icy world is now located out past the orbit of Mars Mars but by summer will swing close to the sun. Comets are fascinating to space buffs and biologists alike for many reasons. For one thing, they are full of water and some of the organic molecules that make up the building blocks of life. Could they have delivered these ingredients to our planet?

To investigate this and other questions, the European Space Agency launched a craft the Rosetta Mission a decade ago. It reached its goal last August. Yesterday it sent a lander called Philae to the surface. Scientists dont know how long this refrigerator-sized lander will survive. It may be knocked down by high winds or comet-quakes, so it has been set up to do a host of experiments during its first days. Among its assignments drilling into the surface, grabbing some of the comets material and analyzing its composition. Here are three big questions that data from the mission could help scientists answer.

Image credit: European Space Agency

1. What are solar systems made of and how do they form?

Scientists have a pretty good general picture of our solar systems birth, which started some 4.6 billion years ago as the sun started to come together from a cloud of gases. In a swirling skirt of matter surrounding the infant sun, little particles of solid matter slammed together and grew bigger, in a process called accretion. That led to the eventual formation of planets, moons, asteroids and comets. As Villanova University astronomer Ed Guinan explains, comets are chunks that got flung out away from the sun, into the cold fringes of the solar system. Out there, they can hold frozen remnants of the original stuff from which our planet formed. The material that makes up earth and the moon, on the other hand, has been thoroughly cooked.

Scientists can learn a lot about comets through remote sensing, but never before have they been able to get a direct look at a piece of comet ice.

2. How did Earth end up with so much water when our understanding of its formation suggests it was once a hot, molten hell?

The accretion process that led to the birth of our planet would have made the surface hot perhaps even molten, explains astronomer Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas. Its not clear how all that water that makes up our oceans would have survived. One possible explanation comes out of the fact that after the Earth formed, things were still pretty chaotic. Our Earth continued to get bombarded with both asteroids and comets. Evidence for this heavy bombardment can be seen in all those pockmarks on our moon.

So the thinking goes that during this period of pummeling, comets brought at least some of our water to us. But how would we know? One clue, said Stern, comes from the proportion of so-called heavy water. Our ocean water is a mix of ordinary H20 and water in which one of the hydrogen atoms carries extra baggage in the form of a neutron. Tests done by Philae will be able to tell us how much of 67Ps water is of the extra baggage carrying type, and whether or not the proportion of heavy water matches that in our oceans.

3. How did life originate here and is there life elsewhere in the universe? Up until the later part of the 20th century, scientists thought those complicated carbon-containing organic molecules that make up living matter were a special product of our planet Earth, said Stern. It came as a surprise when they started turning up in meteorites (some of which actually stink when broken open), in comets (detected through remote sensing techniques) and even in interstellar space. Comets and asteroids both contain amino acids which are the component parts of the proteins that make up our bodies.

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Three Mind-Blowing Things The Comet Lander Will Investigate Regarding Life In The Universe

Age-old dream fulfilled as humans finally make contact with comet

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Throughout human history, comets have been distant, mysterious heavenly bodies. The hunks of rock and ice streak through the sky, streaming bright tails of gas as the sun warms them.

On Wednesday, humankind finally made contact with one. The Rosetta spacecraft defied all odds and dropped its payload, a comet-sniffing probe named Philae, on a cold, speeding target more than 480 million kilometres from Earth.

Although scientists aren't yet sure that the probe will be able to anchor itself securely, for now its systems are operational and responsive. This comes as the climax of a decade-long mission.

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A first for space exploration and the climax of a decade-long mission as a probe lands successfully on a comet to get samples from what are the remnants of the birth of Earth's solar system.

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Age-old dream fulfilled as humans finally make contact with comet

Comets Sign Patrick Kelly and Kiel Williams, Brendan Allen Re-Signs

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November 12, 2014 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) Missouri Comets INDEPENDENCE, MO (November 12, 2014) - The Missouri Comets have announced the re-signing of goalkeeper Brendan Allen along with the signing of midfielders Patrick Kelly and Kiel Williams. All three players agreed to a one-year deal. Per league and team policies, additional contract details were not disclosed.

Allen, a Kansas City, Missouri native, signed with the Comets for the 2013/14 season after graduating from Baker University. In his senior year with the Wildcats, Allen played nine games and turned in three clean sheets. Last season with the Comets, he played 29:01 minutes in two games recording seven saves and .636 percentage.

Williams will be playing his first professional season after graduating from Park University where he was a starting freshman and the team captain during his junior and senior years. In his final year with the Pirates, the Trinidad and Tobago native was named AMC First Team All Conference after recording nine assists and six goals.

"I am truly blessed to be given an opportunity to be a part of such a hardworking, well coached and skillful team," Williams said. "With that being said, I plan on working very hard to add to what's already a very strong team."

Kelly, also a Kansas City, Missouri native, graduated from Marquette University after playing at Maple Woods Community College during his freshman year prior to transferring to transferring to Avila University for his sophomore campaign, where he led the team in points.

"I've been watching the comets my whole life and it's really special to be part of such a storied club," Kelly said. "I am looking forward to contributing and being a part of this championship team, staff, and management."

The Comets will host the Milwaukee Wave this Saturday at 7 p.m. in the home opener at the Independence Events Center after back-to-back wins against Dallas and Chicago on the road.

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Comets Sign Patrick Kelly and Kiel Williams, Brendan Allen Re-Signs

World Psoriasis Day – Swimming for Psoriasis – 28.10.2014 – Video

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World Psoriasis Day - Swimming for Psoriasis - 28.10.2014
On October 28th, EADV invited the press, VIPs, politicians, dermatologists and patients associations to swim for psoriasis in the frame of the World Psoriasis Day. Psoriasis is not contagious,...

By: European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology

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World Psoriasis Day - Swimming for Psoriasis - 28.10.2014 - Video

Psoriasis Revolution By Dan Crawford | Amazing Psoriasis Revolution By Dan Crawford – Video

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Psoriasis Revolution By Dan Crawford | Amazing Psoriasis Revolution By Dan Crawford
http://www.tinyurl.com/psoriasisrevolutionnow Psoriasis Revolution By Dan Crawford: Lots of people around the globe suffer from a horrible skin disease known as psoriasis, a chronic dermatological...

By: Ross Castle

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Psoriasis Revolution By Dan Crawford | Amazing Psoriasis Revolution By Dan Crawford - Video