Vitalik Buterin is the brains behind what some say is the next generation of bitcoin, called Ethereum.
How Apple’s iPhone changed the world: 10 years in 10 charts
Apple’s first iPhone was released 10 years ago this week — on June 29, 2007. While it wasn’t the first smartphone, it leapfrogged far beyond the competition and launched the mobile revolution. Few industries or societies have been left unchanged.
Here are 10 charts that show some of the profound effects the iPhone-led — and Google Android-fueled — mobile boom have caused over the past decade.
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Cryptocurrency wars – Untraceable coins storming into top 10
Bytecoin, an untraceable privacy-preserving cryptocurrency, has just seen an astronomical triple-digit percent surge in price. The cryptocurrency soared to the all time high market capitalization of $444,000,000, before calming down to around $300,000,000 and establishing itself at the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization at the time of writing (according to CoinMarketCap). A symbolic turning point for one of the first untraceable cryptocurrencies launched in 2012.
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7 laws that will have to change because of blockchain
“Code is law,” as described in Lawrence Lessig’s book ‘Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace’, refers to the idea that computer code has progressively established itself as a predominant way to regulate behavior to the same degree as legal code.
With the advent of blockchain technology, code is assuming an even stronger role in regulating people’s interactions.
However, while computer code can enforce rules more efficiently than legal code, it also comes with a series of limitations.
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Entrepreneurs: How To Define Your Future In The Exponential Age
Recently, I’ve been impressed by a vision of the future as shared by serial entrepreneur and CEO Udo Gollub. He has noted that what happened to Kodak will happen to many industries in the next 10 years. But most don’t see it coming. Did you think, in 1998, that 3 years later you would never take pictures on film or paper again?
Digital cameras were invented in 1975. The first models had only 10,000 pixels of image resolution, but followed Moore’s law (like transistors, we’ve doubled the number of pixels per square inch every year). Similar to many exponentially growing technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, but grew progressively more superior and went mainstream in only a few short years.
Welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution. Welcome to the Exponential Age.
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This Kenyan Startup Uses Mobile Phones To Build Credit For Farmers
If you want to help the world’s poorest, help them to farm. So says Bill Gates, and it makes sense. More than three-quarters of the poorest live in rural areas and most are smallholder farmers working less than two acres. They often lack the seeds, machinery, livestock, and finance they need to grow, so they struggle to emerge from poverty.
Two young entrepreneurs from Kenya have an idea to help: FarmDrive develops credit histories for farmers, so they become more attractive to financial institutions offering loans. So far, they’ve signed up more than 3,000 farmers on their mobile-based platform. In 2016, working with a financial partner, they helped disburse about $130,000 in loans to 400 farmers.
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The Blockchain Will Do to the Financial System What the Internet Did to Media
Even years into the deployment of the internet, many believed that it was still a fad. Of course, the internet has since become a major influence on our lives, from how we buy goods and services, to the ways we socialize with friends, to the Arab Spring, to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Yet, in the 1990s, the mainstream press scoffed when Nicholas Negroponte predicted that most of us would soon be reading our news online rather than from a newspaper.
Fast forward two decades: Will we soon be seeing a similar impact from cryptocurrencies and blockchains? There are certainly many parallels. Like the internet, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are driven by advances in core technologies along with a new, open architecture — the Bitcoin blockchain. Like the internet, this technology is designed to be decentralized, with “layers,” where each layer is defined by an interoperable open protocol on top of which companies, as well as individuals, can build products and services. Like the internet, in the early stages of development there are many competing technologies, so it’s important to specify which blockchain you’re talking about. And, like the internet, blockchain technology is strongest when everyone is using the same network, so in the future we might all be talking about “the” blockchain.
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Dash Passes Litecoin and Monero to Claim Number 4 Cryptocurrency Status
In a major price surge, Dash has nearly doubled market cap over the last month, overtaking Litecoin and Monero to become the fourth most valued cryptocurrency.
This week one year ago, Dash was the #7 ranked cryptocurrency with a market cap of about $23 mln. This number grew steadily over the course of the year, finishing out the year with a market cap of $69 mln and maintained #7 ranking. Over the course of 2017 so far, however, Dash’s growth has significantly picked up steam, exceeding $100 mln over January. This month Dash has risen to a nearly $200 mln market cap, currently with a value of over $27 and 0.23 Bitcoin at present time.
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Bitcoin is the best-performing currency
The virtual currency has continued its breathtaking rise surging past $1,000, after already winning the crown of the best-performing currency in 2016 by more than doubling its value in the course of the year.
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Cash is on the verge of extinction in these countries
My dad, a former Wall Street trader always advised me “cash is king” and to “hold on to it” when the economy gets tough.
But in the Netherlands, cash is definitely not getting the royal treatment. In so many places, it has simply ceased to be recognised as legal tender. More and more Dutch stores, from upscale health-food store Marqt to my local baker and bagel shop, take pin — or debit — cards exclusively. Some retailers even describe going cash-free as “cleaner” or “safer”.
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Six Global Banks Lead Standardizing Global Payments via Blockchain
Starting a modern payments network underpinned by Ripple and supported by rules and governance for global settlement.
Ripple, which earlier this month completed a $55 million Series B financing round, has announced that a number of global banks are joining forces to establish the first interbank group for global payments based on distributed ledger (blockchain) financial technology.
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The Future of the Internet of Things: 16 Stunning Statistics
When we started this decade, the Internet of Things was a basically a buzzword, talked about by a few, acted upon by fewer, a challenge to save for the future, like 2015 or 2020. Continue reading… “The Future of the Internet of Things: 16 Stunning Statistics”
