Monthly Archives: February 2017

NSA Gives Thumbs Up to Microsoft Surface Tablets – Fortune

Posted: February 14, 2017 at 11:02 am

An employee uses a Microsoft Corp. Surface tablet computer at the company's Office and Experience Center during a media event for the opening of the workspace in Hong Kong, China, on Friday, March 4, 2016. Bill H.C. KwokBloomberg via Getty Images

National Security Agency workers can now safely use Microsoft Surface tablets devices for data mining, intelligence gathering, or more humdrum work like checking email.

Microsofts ( msft ) Surface tablets and the tech giant's Windows 10 operating system are now officially part of the NSAs list of approved technologies that its employees can use when dealing with classified information.

It should be noted that as of now, the only Windows 10 devices that the NSA deems safe to use for its workers are the Surface tablets. The NSA has not yet approved other any other Windows 10-powered personal computers built by third-party vendors like HP Inc. ( hpq ) or Dell Technologies to its list of sanctioned devices .

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The NSA, through its Commercial Solutions for Classified Program , routinely evaluates various corporate technologies to see if they meet the agencys tough guidelines for cyber security. Companies that want to be added to the NSAs list of approved technologies must show that they built their products to comply with various government cyber security standards and sign an agreement requiring them to fix vulnerabilities in a timely fashion, according to the NSA.

The CSfC program listing demonstrates Windows 10, as well as Surface devices (the only Windows 10 devices currently on the list), when used in a layered solution, can meet the highest security requirements for use in classified environments, wrote Rob Lefferts, a Microsoft director of program management for Windows Enterprise and Security, in a corporate blog .

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Besides Windows 10 or Surface tablets, several other Microsoft products are part of the NSAs approved list of technologies, including its Server 2016 software, the BitLocker encryption service, and older versions of Windows.

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Will Sixty Senators Vote To Protect The Second Amendment? – Daily Caller

Posted: at 10:58 am

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With the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to replace Antonin Scalia on the Surpeme Court, Second Amendment supporters can celebrate. That would be very premature.

The battle over the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General is going to be a cakewalk compared to the fight over Gorsuch. You have some snowflakes on the Left crying about how this Supreme Court seat was stolen from Merrick Garland (conveniently ignoring that Joe Biden threatened to do the same in 1992, and Schumer made similar comments in 2008).

What do you expect when the fight is for all the marbles? In this case, Gorsuch is a likely fifth vote to uphold the ruling made by the District Court in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands that tossed a semi-auto ban and a number of other strict gun laws. Hes the fifth vote that secures the Heller ruling that recognized the Second Amendment as an individual right and which tossed out D.C.s handgun ban. The McDonald case, which extended the prohibition on banning handguns to the states, is also secure.

When Gorsuch is confirmed and that, folks, is gonna be one hell of a fight. Senator Chuck Schumer wants 60 votes for confirmation. I dont necessarily object to that popping off the nuke option now makes it easier to replace the next openings (potentially Ginsburg and Breyer) with reliable conservatives. The good news is that Gorsuch briefly hit the 60-vote threshold until Jeanne Shaheen flip-flopped. This is why Kelly Ayotte and Mark Kirk mattered, people. Better to have started from 54 to work your way to 60, than the present 52.

In short, we need eight Democrats to cross over and vote. And while there are a lot of Senate Democrats facing re-election in states Trump won, to win their primaries, they must show fealty to the activists, donors, and Party leadership. Who do you think provides the money for the DNC efforts on behalf of Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester, and Joe Donnelly? The same folks who also donate to the DNC efforts for Chuck Schumer and the most anti-gun members of the House and Senate. By the way, did Heitkamp, Tester, and Donnelly back Jeff Sessions as AG? No.

The good news, if anything, is that the anti-Second Amendment forces and the rest of the Left seem to have been unable to really reach beyond their base on the issue of guns. Furthermore, outside that issue, Trump has made some serious progress (notably in bring jobs in). If that continues over the next four years, we could see significant gains in the Senate and a second Trump term.

That is a big if, though. The one thing we have seen in the first weeks is that the Left isnt just going to roll over after losing the 2016 presidential election. If anything, they intend to fight as furiously as they can to take our rights, and they are going to be persistent about it. We will need to match that persistence and fury to keep our rights.

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MARK HOPKINS: Why did the Constitution need the Second Amendment? – Port St. Joe Star

Posted: at 10:58 am

Mark Hopkins | Special to the Daily News

Why did we need a militia/gun amendment added to the Constitution?

As is true with most momentous decisions in the life of our country, to fully understand why something was done, we must study the times in which such decisions were made.

The why of the Second Amendment in the 1780s is very different from answering that same question in 2017. The United States was a very different country in the years following the Revolution than it is today. When President Washington first took office, two key challenges faced him and the leadership in Congress.

First, the Revolutionary War had concluded just eight years before. England had been defeated on our shores and withdrew their troops. However, that didnt make us the strongest nation on the globe. England still had the strongest combination of army and navy. They still controlled Canada, just a short trip up the Hudson River from New York City. In short, they were still a threat to us.

At the conclusion of the war, General Washington and the leadership in Congress did not have the money to support a standing army. It was the consensus that the U.S. must make do with smaller, live-at-home militia units in the various states rather than a centralized army. Thus, it was their hope that the new country could be protected with a citizen army that was armed and ready to be called up at a moments notice. To make that work, each military age male needed to be armed and ready if needed.

Second, several citizen rebellions had occurred between the end of the war and the time of the passage of the new Constitution. Principal among these were the Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts and the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. Without the creation of a local militia, neither state had the firepower to protect the government or the people.

In short, our young country did not have the money to support a standing army so adding the Second Amendment was for the expressed purpose of making sure that each state had the legal right to call men to arms. Just as important, it was necessary that those men were able to join the militia fully armed and ready to defend their state and their government.

The contention from some that the framers of the Constitution adopted the Second Amendment because they wanted an armed population that could take down the U.S. government should it become tyrannical just has no credence in history.

In past columns about the Second Amendment, we have established the historical context of the creation of the Second Amendment. The primary purpose was to create a legal foundation for a state militia, the forerunner of our National Guard. President Washington not only wrote letters to support such action but actually created his own militia to put down the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. Congress supported his action by creating The Militia Act, that allowed states to call up militia units to protect the government and the people as needed.

Resources used for these columns on the Second Amendment came from His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis (2004), James Madisons arguments for a strong federal government in The Federalist Papers, (1777-78) and The Readers Companion to American History by John A. Garraty and Eric Foner, which tells the stories of Shays Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion.

If a reader missed the two earlier columns, contact me at presnet@presnet.net for copies.

Dr. Mark L. Hopkins writes for More Content Now and Scripps Newspapers.

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Editorial: Second Amendment rights in Ramsey – NorthJersey.com – NorthJersey.com

Posted: at 10:58 am

NorthJersey 12:06 a.m. ET Feb. 12, 2017

Ramsey Mayor Deirdre Dillon presides over the standing-room-only crowd of about 150 people hearing the public comments about the ordinance prohibiting the discharge of firearms within town, even at a gun range, at the Ramsey Borough Council meeting on Wednesday night.(Photo: Adam Anik/NorthJersey.com)

We consistently support smart gun laws. There are too many guns in the hands of people who should never have access to a firearm. At the same time, citizens have a constitutional right to own a firearm and a responsibility, if they choose to own one, to know how to use it. So what is happening in Ramsey is troubling.

A developer from Pennsylvania wants to convert the former Liberty Travel building into a firing range with 67 firing stalls, in addition to space for a restaurant and retail sales. It would be called the Screaming Eagle Club.

Council: Ramsey tables vote on gun law, prepares forlitigation

Letter: Ramsey should not fear shooting range

The moniker gives us pause, but Ramsey has an ordinance on the books since 1961 that, while prohibiting the firing of any pistol, shotgun, rifle or other type of firearms anywhere in the borough, exempts indoor and outdoor firing ranges.

As Staff Writer Tom Nobile reported, the borough was set to vote on a change in the ordinance on Wednesday night, but postponed a vote after being informed that litigation opposing the change would ensue. So for now or until the borough lawyers-up with a pro-bono-inclined law firm the proposal is on hold.

We understand that the proposed 60,000-square-foot indoor firing range may not be exactly what Ramsey officials want to see in their community, but we cannot support changing ordinances on the spot to keep out a legal business, particularly one supported by the Second Amendment.

If the borough has a problem with the size of the range and that it will create legitimate safety issues, make that case. If there is concern that adding a restaurant or shops may create a public safety issue, make that case. But we would be surprised if that case would be successful in court.

A firing range of this size will bring a lot of gun-toting folks into Ramsey. Most will be legal gun owners going to a controlled space to hone their skills. The borough should ensure there is proper supervision and safety checks. Yet that will not preclude the possibility of something bad happening.

This past July, a man committed suicide at the Gun for Hire range in Woodland Park. He was the seventh gun-range suicide in New Jersey since 2014. The July death raised concerns over ranges that rent guns to walk-in customers in many cases it is as simple as showing a valid drivers license;no background check is required.

Ramsey officials, as they study legal options, should determine whether they can prohibit gun rentals at the proposed range. That would mitigate some of the risks associated with the facility. We understand why many Ramsey residents dont want the range, but we also recognize that many people do. Wednesdays Borough Council meeting was contentious.

There may be ways for the council to restrict the size and scale of the proposed firing range, but we are wary of the timing of this proposed change to a borough ordinance that had permitted indoor firing ranges in Ramsey.

The developers attorney, James Jaworski, said Wednesday, The Second Amendment protects not just the right to keep and bear arms, but the right to be proficient in the keeping and bearing of arms.

We agree. Citizens have a right to bear arms, and we are all safer when they have been properly trained in their use.

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CGF, Others Seek Circuit Court Review in Major Second Amendment Lawsuit – AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

Posted: at 10:58 am


AmmoLand Shooting Sports News
CGF, Others Seek Circuit Court Review in Major Second Amendment Lawsuit
AmmoLand Shooting Sports News
SAN FRANCISCO -(Ammoland.com)- Today, attorneys for The Calguns Foundation (CGF), Second Amendment Foundation, and two individual plaintiffs filed a petition with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking en banc (full-court) review of a ...

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Iowa State violated First Amendment by barring pro-marijuana student group from printing T-shirts with ISU logo … – Washington Post

Posted: at 10:58 am

From todays 8th Circuit decision in Gerlich v. Leath:

Iowa State University (ISU) grants student organizations permission to use its trademarks if certain conditions are met. The ISU student chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML ISU) had several of its trademark licensing requests denied because its designs included a cannabis leaf.

ISU [has] approximately 800 officially recognized student organizations. Student groups often create merchandise that contains the groups name and ISU insignia to generate awareness about the groups cause or attract members. Student groups may use ISUs trademarks on merchandise if ISUs Trademark Licensing Office (Trademark Office) determines that the use complies with ISUs Guidelines for University Trademark Use by Student and Campus Organizations (Trademark Guidelines). ISUs trademarks include word marks like ISU and Iowa State, as well as logos, such as the schools mascot (Cy the Cardinal).

NORML ISU at first got permission from the Trademark Office to use a T-shirt that had NORML ISU on the front with the O represented by Cy the Cardinal, with Freedom is NORML at ISU and a cannabis leaf depicted on the back. But after a Des Moines Register article mentioned the T-shirt, a state legislator and someone at the Governors Office of Drug Control Policy heard about this and objected, and the University barred NORML ISU from printing further T-shirts with the design. After that, the Universitys Trademark Guidelines were changed to ban designs that suggest promotion of the below listed items dangerous, illegal or unhealthy products, actions or behaviors; [or] drugs and drug paraphernalia that are illegal or unhealthful.

The 8th Circuit held that the universitys rejection of NORML ISUs designs was unconstitutional:

If a state university creates a limited public forum for speech, it may not discriminate against speech on the basis of its viewpoint. [Rosenberger v. Rector (1995).] A university establish[es] limited public forums by opening property limited to use by certain groups or dedicated solely to the discussion of certain subjects. A universitys student activity fund is an example of a limited public forum. ISU created a limited public forum when it made its trademarks available for student organizations to use if they abided by certain conditions.

The defendants rejection of NORML ISUs designs discriminated against that group on the basis of the groups viewpoint. The state engages in viewpoint discrimination when the rationale for its regulation of speech is the specific motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker. The defendants discriminatory motive is evidenced by the unique scrutiny defendants imposed on NORML ISU after the [controversy arose].

Defendants argue that the political pushback that they received regarding T- Shirt Design #1 did not play a role in their decision making. This argument ignores significant evidence to the contrary. For example, [ISU President Steven] Leath testified that anytime someone from the governors staff calls complaining, yeah, Im going to pay attention, absolutely. Leath also testified that the reason the Trademark Policy was on the presidents cabinet meeting agenda which took place five days after the Des Moines Register article was published was because we were getting pushback. Leath went on to testify that [i]f nobodyd ever said anything, we didnt know about it, it didnt appear in The Register, wed probably never raised the issue.

The record is also replete with statements from defendants regarding their political motives. Leath explained at his deposition that because T-Shirt Design #1 had some political public relations implications, someone should have run it up the chain because there are some issues that are clearly going to cause controversy and its better to manage them on the front end. He also testified that in a state as conservative as Iowa on many issues, it was going to be a problem. [Senior VP for Student Affairs Thomas] Hill stated in an interview with the Ames Tribune that the reason student groups associated with political parties could use ISUs logos, but groups like NORML ISU may not, is because [w]e encourage students to be involved in their duties as a citizen. Such a statement implies that Hill believed that the members of NORML ISU were not undertaking their duties as citizens by advocating for a change in the law.

[ISU Trademark Office Director Leesha] Zimmerman stated in an email to NORML ISUs faculty advisor in May 2013 that the groups design that included the statement Legalize Marijuana was rejected because Legalize Marijuana is a call to action but it does not suggest any specific way your organization is making that happen. Zimmerman went on to say that the groups design applications appear to have a certain shock or attention grabbing sensationalism. Zimmerman further stated that her interpretation is that these do not further your cause as an advocate for change in the laws or trying to change the publics perception of marijuana. There is no evidence in the record of Zimmerman offering advocacy advice to any other student group.

The university also argued that, even if it did engage in viewpoint discrimination, this was permissible because the administration of the trademark licensing regime should be considered government speech. But the court disagreed:

When the government speaks, it is not barred by the Free Speech Clause from determining the content of what it says. Walker v. Tex. Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. (2015).

The government speech doctrine does not apply if a government entity has created a limited public forum for speech. As noted above, ISU created a limited public forum when it made its trademarks available for student organizations to use if they abided by certain conditions. The administration of its trademark licensing regime therefore did not constitute government speech.

Even if the trademark licensing regime here did not amount to a limited public forum, however, the government speech doctrine still does not apply on this record. The Walker decision considered three factors when determining whether certain speech is government speech. First, it determined whether the government has long used the particular medium at issue to speak. Second, it analyzed whether the medium is often closely identified in the public mind with the state. Third, it determined whether the state maintains direct control over the messages conveyed through the medium.

The first two factors do not apply to the speech at issue in this case. ISU allows approximately 800 student organizations to use its trademarks. Defendants repeatedly stated in their testimony and other record evidence that the university did not intend to communicate any message to the public by licensing ISU trademarks to student groups. Indeed, the university licenses its trademarks to groups that have opposite viewpoints from one another like the Iowa State Democrats and the ISU College Republicans. Even if ISUs trademark licensing regime were to satisfy the final factor, the factors taken together would not support the conclusion that the speech at issue in this case is government speech because ISU does not use its trademark licensing regime to speak to the public.

My students Ian Daily, Eric Sefton and Sydney Sherman and I filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Student Press Law Center arguing in favor of this result.

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Edward Snowden’s New Job: Protecting Reporters From Spies – WIRED

Posted: at 10:56 am

Slide: 1 / of 1. Caption: 520 Design

This story is part of our special coverage, The News in Crisis.

When Edward Snowden leaked the biggest collection of classified National Security Agency documents in history, he wasnt just revealing the inner workings of a global surveillance machine. He was also scrambling to evade it. To communicate with the journalists who would publish his secrets, he had to route all his messages over the anonymity software Tor, teach reporters to use the encryption tool PGP by creating a YouTube tutorial that disguised his voice, and eventually ditch his comfortable life (and smartphone) in Hawaii to set up a cloak-and-dagger data handoff halfway around the world.

Now, nearly four years later, Snowden has focused the next phase of his career on solving that very specific instance of the panopticon problem: how to protect reporters and the people who feed them information in an era of eroding privacywithout requiring them to have an NSA analysts expertise in encryption or to exile themselves to Moscow. Watch the journalists and youll find their sources, Snowden says. So how do we preserve that confidentiality in this new world, when its more important than ever?

Since early last year, Snowden has quietly served as president of a small San Franciscobased nonprofit called the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Its mission: to equip the media to do its job at a time when state-sponsored hackers and government surveillance threaten investigative reporting in ways Woodward and Bernstein never imagined. Newsrooms dont have the budget, the sophistication, or the skills to defend themselves in the current environment, says Snowden, who spoke to WIRED via encrypted video-chat from his home in Moscow. Were trying to provide a few niche tools to make the game a little more fair.

The groups 10 staffers and a handful of contract coders, with Snowdens remote guidance, are working to develop an armory of security upgrades for reporters. Snowden and renowned hacker Bunnie Huang have partnered to develop a hardware modification for the iPhone, designed to detect if malware on the device is secretly transmitting a reporters data, including location. Theyve recruited Fred Jacobs, one of the coders for the popular encryption app Signal, to help build a piece of software called Sunder; the tool would allow journalists to encrypt a trove of secrets and then retrieve them only if several newsroom colleagues combine their passwords to access the data. And the foundations coders are building a plug-and-play version of Jitsi, the encrypted video-chat software Snowden himself uses for daily communication. They want newsrooms to be able to install it on their own servers with a few clicks. The idea is to make this all paint-by-numbers instead of teaching yourself to be Picasso, Snowden says.

A brief guide to becoming an anonymous source.

Web

The anonymity network Tor obscures your identity by routing your online traffic through computers worldwide. Access it via the web-based Tor Browser to visit any site related to your planned contact with the press. Find a directory of the 35 or so news organizations that maintain SecureDrop portalsTor-enabled inboxes for anonymous tips. Then choose an outlet and leak away.

Phone

Buy a burnera cheap, prepaid Android phonewith cash from a nonchain store in an area youve never been to before. Dont carry your regular phone and the burner at the same time, and never turn on the burner at home or work. Create a Gmail and Google Play account from the burner, then install the encrypted calling and texting app Signal. When youre done, destroy the burner and ditch its corpse far from home.

Snail mail

Pick a distant mailbox, dont carry your phone on the trip, andduhdont include a real return address.

But the foundations biggest coup has been SecureDrop, a Tor-based system for WikiLeaks-style uploads of leaked materials and news tips. The system has now been adopted by dozens of outlets, including The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. It works. I know, hinted a tweet from Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold the day after he published a leaked video of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault.

In early 2014, the Freedom of the Press Foundations founderswho include the first recipients of Snowdens leaks, journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitrasasked their 30-year-old source to join the groups board as a largely symbolic gesture. But Snowden surprised the board members by showing up to his first meeting with a list of detailed changes to its 40-plus pages of bylaws. The next year he was unanimously elected its president. No one has more practical expertise when it comes to whistleblower and journalist communications, says Trevor Timm, the groups executive director. It was the perfect fit. Snowden has refused a salary, instead giving the group more than $60,000 of his fees from speaking engagements over the past year.

Snowdens own leaks have shown the dire need for the foundations work: In early 2015 he revealed that British spies had collected emails from practically every major newspaper and wire service. Other signs of encroaching state surveillance have also put journalists on guard. Late last year it emerged that Montreal police had tracked the phone calls and texts of a reporter in order to identify sources critical of the department. And in early January, before he had even taken office, Donald Trump called on Congress to investigate a leak to NBC newsone that gave the network a sneak peek at an intelligence report on Russias role in influencing the US election. In the months since Trumps victory, the Freedom of the Press Foundations phones have been ringing off the hook with requests from newsrooms for training sessions, says Timm.

Snowden is quick to note it was the administration of President Obama, not Trump, that indicted him and at least seven others under the Espionage Act for leaking information to journalists. Thats more such indictments than all other presidents in history combined have issued. But Snowden and Timm worry that Trump, with his deep-seated disdain for the media and the full powers of the US Justice Department at his fingertips, will be only too happy to carry forward and expand that precedent.

All of that makes the medias technical protections from spying more important than ever. We cant fix the surveillance problem overnight, Snowden says. But maybe we can build a shield that will protect anyone whos standing behind it. If the group succeeds, perhaps the next Snowden will be able to take refuge not in Moscow but in the encrypted corners of the internet.

Andy Greenberg (@a_greenberg) wrote about Google subsidiary Jigsaw in issue 24.10.

This article appears in the March issue. Subscribe now.

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New Centurion Cryptocurrency Offers an Alternative Payment Option While Supporting Its Own Children Charity – newsBTC

Posted: at 10:55 am

The creators of Centurion are not just focusing on the financial aspects; they are driven by altruistic goals as well.

Centurion Lab has launched a brand-new cryptocurrency called Centurion. The digital currency, named after the key figures in the ancient Roman army offers an efficient and easy to use alternative to several altcoins currently available in the cryptocurrency market. The Centurion cryptocurrency was launched on February 9, 2017, and it aims to solve the issues faced by the Bitcoin community by offering them an alternative.

The Bitcoin network is currently struggling with increased delays in processing transactions due to confirmation backlogs. The delay in network scaling has led to increase in miner fees associated with transactions. Centurion has considered these challenges to create a cryptocurrency platform with twice the block size of Bitcoin at 2 MB, and a block time of 1 minute. The specifications of Centurion cryptocurrency are as follows:

X11 Proof of Work (PoW)

3% Proof of Stake (PoS)

RPC port: 5555 / P2P port: 5556

1 Minute Blocks

Block Size 2Mb

Reward Schedule:

Blocks until 100 0 CNT (for fair difficulty balancing)

Blocks 101 250,100 100 CNT

Blocks 250,101 500,100 75 CNT

Blocks 500,101 1,000,100 60 CNT

Blocks 1,000,101 2,000,100 50 CNT

Blocks 2,000,101 2,500,100 25 CNT

Blocks 2,500,101 3,500,100 10 CNT

Blocks 3,500,101 4,000,100 5 CNT

Blocks 4,000,101 5,000,100 2.5 CNT

Blocks 5,000,101 19,000,000 1 CNT

Total Coin production 250 Million

Reserve: 50 Million.

The creators of Centurion are not just focusing on the financial aspects, they are driven by altruistic goals as well. In the Roman saga, Centurions were considered as the protectors of the downtrodden, weak, and young. Taking a leaf out of the history, Centurion cryptocurrency also has an initiative named Centurion4Children a charity that strives to help kids across the world. Centurion cryptocurrency will be setting aside a total of 5 million Centurions to facilitate its activities. Centurion4Children will be responsible for supporting children and their families, sponsoring a child, providing safe water in developing countries and sustainable schools.

Centurion offers easy-to-use mining pools and software that save people from the complicated setup process as in the case of other cryptocurrency platforms. Centurion users can just download preconfigured files and become part of the mining community.

The creators of Centurion are also working on building a merchant network so that the community members can readily spend the crypto tokens for various goods and services. The readymade merchant API libraries make it easy for online platforms to integrate Centurion as an additional payment option. It has already partnered with one of the leading online sellers of e-books and videos on marketing, cryptocurrencies, internet tips, tricks, etc. In the coming days, Centurion will be expanding its network with the help of Cryptonetwork Ltd. Cryptonetwork will promote the use of Centurion through its marketing network in India, Germany, Italy, Spain and other nations.

More information about Centurion is available on the cryptocurrencys official website.

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This Blockchain Startup Will Pay You to Help Your Friends Find Love – CoinDesk

Posted: at 10:55 am

"When I looked at the dating industry, I saw it was expensive to reach a critical mass of users and open a niche dating site," says Yonatan Ben Shimon in a Skype call from Tel Aviv.

"That's why dominant sites are one-size-fits-all, but that's not what most of us look for."

Ben Shimon is founder and CEO of Matchpool, a new dating service that aims to bring couples together through the art of matchmakingand a 21st century twist, let the most successful matchmakers earn cryptocurrency rewards for their work.

The unique selling proposition (USP) of the service is to combine elements of traditional matchmaking with the transparency and enforceability of programmable smart contracts.

In short, potential matchmakers start 'pools' subsets of users united by a common interest, like Facebook groups within which all users can private message one another in the hope of finding a match.

Pool owners are able to monetize their matchmaking efforts in a variety of ways, such as by setting a membership fee to join or charging an amount per message sent.

Additionally they can try to maintain group dynamics by setting smart contract-enforced ratios between different user attributes: a 50/50 male-female split, for example, or a balanced age range. Rather than using the everyone-for-themselves, search-and-filter strategy of a site like OKCupid, you might call it a more curated approach to dating.

In a Medium post, Ben Shimon writes that matchmaking is still a common practice in many religious communities, and has been for much of history. But, it's also true that most of us don't live in these kinds of communities anymore.

"I think it does happen, but under the surface," he said. "If you ask a lot of colleagues or friends how they met their husband, they'll say through mutual friends. It's an environment that takes off your layers of protection If a trusted person makes the introduction we suddenly feel a lot more comfortable."

The idea is that pool owners will help to create this atmosphere of trust, at least to some degree, vouching for the users in the pool in a way that fosters genuine conversation instead of the frequently bland or abusive tenor of other popular sites.

Of course, even with the best intentions, trying to engineer social dynamics is pretty tricky, as is launching a dating site (or any other kind of social network) when existing competitors already have a significant network effect.

With these potential challenges ahead, why is Matchpool taking on the additional challenge of creating its own cryptocurrency token to underpin it?

Firstly, Ben Shimon said the company was attracted to the idea of using a blockchain to store data about user interactions because the records in the system are difficult to change, something he hopes will further build the trust network between users.

Secondly, as has been established in many other contexts, cryptocurrency isthought to be an attractive option if the aim is to reward users with small amounts of money on a regular basis, especially compared to conventional payment processors.

And thirdly, Matchpool's 'Guppy' token will be used to attract users, with 20% of the token supply being used to incentivize new signups with a reward which for the time being will only be given to women.

The rationale is that dating sites tend to have higher numbers of men, though its difficult to assess figures across all sites. Research from the Pew Center, though, found that more American men used dating sites than women.

"I believe that if we reward early users with real money in a way that we couldn't do with dollars then we can cheaply overcome the initial barriers that come from the [lack of] network effect," said Ben Shimon, citing PayPal as a company that had employed a similar paid sign-up strategy to rapidly acquire users.

With a token sale (sometimes called an initial coin offering or ICO) scheduled for March, and prospective launch date in May, it wont be long until the effectiveness of this strategy can be judged against results.

But one question remained at the end of the interview: what exactly isBen Shimon's motive for the site anyway?

Could it be that perhaps hes like the Mark Zuckerberg portrayed in "The Social Network", trying to connect crowds of other people as a way of getting closer to the one girl that got away?

For now, he doesn't see it the same.

"You know, thats a tricky question ... I'm not doing it to get one girl."

Love and money image via Shutterstock. App image via Matchpool

CryptocurrencyICOLifestyle

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Bitcoin’s Price Battles New Resistance in Bid to Breach $1000 – CoinDesk

Posted: at 10:55 am

Bitcoin prices continued to fluctuate around $1,000 today, as the global digital currency markets saw technical resistance around this figure.

Overall, bitcoin traded traded above $1,000 for roughly the first eight hours of the day, reaching as much as $1,007 during the session, CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) figures reveal.

Prices fell below $1,000 at 08:15 UTC, however, and failed to break through that level for the remainder of the day.

At the time of report, the currency was trading at $998.42, according to the BPI.

According to analysts, traders remain reluctant about placing bets in the market, as concerns linger about further actions from the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the nation's central bank.

The digital currency has experienced significant volatility in the last several weeks, as the PBOC's decision to crack down on domestic exchanges has caused these marketplaces to announce a slew of sudden policy changes.

Huobi, OKCoin and BTCC (previously called the 'Big Three' exchanges) all announced they wouldimpose consistent fees, cut margin trading and halt or slow deposits and withdrawals denominated in digital currency in recent days.

These continued developments have made some market participants reluctant to trade bitcoin, according to BTC VIX, community moderator for trading group Whale Club. He told CoinDesk:

"I wouldn't hold any position for more than a few hours because the PBOC will continue to be active and exchanges certainly have more announcements over the next 30 days," he said.

So far, there's evidence backing this theory, as traders put in a large number sell orders around the $1,000 price point. This resistance was confirmed by both order book data and the input of market analysts.

Exchanges Bitfinex and Kraken showed the number of sell orders exceeding the number of buy orders close to the $1,000 mark.

Tim Enneking, chairman of Crypto Asset Management, weighed in on this development:

"Bitcoin is definitely encountering technical resistance. $1,000 is a level that is going to take some time to break."

Petar Zivkovski, COO of leveraged bitcoin trading platform Whaleclub, offered similar input.

"The $1,000 level is indeed a strong psychological resistance. Bitcoin will need to cleanly break above $1,000 (high-volume rise and sustained price action above 1000) to transform that level into price support," he continued.

Still, he added that there are potential bullish catalysts, citing the March approval of a Bitcoin ETF or positive regulatory news from China as two possible boons.

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Bitcoin's Price Battles New Resistance in Bid to Breach $1000 - CoinDesk

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